A Congolese army colonel has been arrested for alleged involvement in the murder of two United Nations staff in the volatile Kasai region, officials said on Friday.
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“Jean de Dieu Mambweni was arrested on Thursday as part of the investigation into the murders of Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan,’’ Timothee Munkuntu, an army lawyer, told newsmen.
Sharp, a U.S. citizen, and Catalan, a Swedish-Chilean national, were killed in March 2017 at the height of the conflict in Kasai, where the UN is trying to stem a humanitarian crisis.
The grisly killings shocked the world body, with Catalan also having been decapitated.
The officials said two other suspects in the case were previously arrested: a local militia chief and a policeman.
The violence in Kasai began in 2016 when the central government in Kinshasa refused to recognise the appointment of a traditional chief.
The chief, who has since been killed, set up the Kamuina Nsapu militia and the state in turn sent the army to quell the insurgency.
Sharp and Catalan were investigating reports of atrocities in the area when they were killed.