WORLD> Africa
Children orphaned in Congo violence
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-24 21:53

War-orphan Faustin Mugisa, 8, who has machete scars on his head and body, lies on a bed at the Kizito orphanage in Bunia in northeastern Congo February 24, 2009. Mugisa was left for dead in a pile of corpses when ethnic Lendu militiamen hacked to death his mother and seven siblings in 2003. Mugisa's father discovered him alive and took him to the bush to recover, but his father was later hacked to death by the same militia group. Ethnic violence has simmered for years in northeastern Congo, part of broader civil and regional conflict currently uprooting hundreds of thousands of Congolese fleeing massacres and reprisal killings by various armed militias roaming the country's vast and lawless wilds. [Agencies]