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The five armed groups in the troubled Ituri region in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday pledged to supply information about the state of their forces, with a view to their eventual reintegration back into society.

The armed groups, who include the powerful Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), have been given 10 days to present the information by the UN mission in the DRC, Monuc.

The five movements "showed their willingness to cooperate with the government to supply information about their numbers and their sites within ten days with a view to cantonment," said the commander of the Monuc sector in Ituri, Colonel Laurent Banal.

"The groups have shown themselves to be very favourable to cantonment, with with the aim of integrating themselves into the national army or into civilian life," Banal told a news conference after a meeting with the groups and officials from the DRC defence ministry.

He said that the cantonment - the placing of the rebels into military camps as a prelude to social retintegration - would take place at 10-12 sites and last between two to four months.

"Those who do not collaborate with this process will be treated by Monuc within the framework of its mandate, with the possible use of force," Banal warned.

Clashes rooted in an ethnic feud between the rival Hema and Lendu ethnic groups have claimed more than 50 000 lives in the Ituri region since 1999.

The UN force has now started to deploy outside of the main city Bunia in a bid to end the persistent bloody fighting in the region.

The continued lack of peace in the region was underlined Monday when at least 65 people were killed and 20 injured in a massacre in the village of Kachele, about 100 km north of Bunia.

Yesterday 120 soldiers from Monuc deployed in the village of Bule, in the region where the massacre took place, to bring security to the area and find the perpetrators of the massacre. – Sapa-AFP.

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