The United Nations Human Rights Office on Friday condemned “serious human rights abuses’’ committed in the mass deportation of 330,000 Congolese from Angola and called on perpetrators to be held to account.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement in Geneva that the office had confirmed about six deaths, reportedly, at the hands of security forces.
The commissioner said the development happened in an operation which Angola said was aimed at ending illegal diamond mining in the country.
Bachelet’s statement followed a report by Reuters that found that there had been at least, eight deaths in the Angolan town of Lucapa, 150 km (95 miles) from the Congolese border.
Three of the victims were reported to have been killed by security forces. (Reuters/NAN)