DRC: Ituri conflict linked to illegal exploitation of natural resources

Violence and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ituri District will not end until the government takes control of the extraction of natural resources there, said a newly released special report from the UN Mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC. "The competition for the control of natural resources by combatant forces, exacerbated by an almost constant political vacuum in the region, has been a major factor in prolonging the crisis in Ituri," said the special report on events in Ituri from January 2002-December 2003.