Photograph by: Dita Alangkara
Credit: AP

"A helicopter (of the UN Mission in DR Congo - MONUC) came under fire at Dongo. There are five wounded. A crisis cell has been set up," the source added, saying that it was the second such incident this week.

However, the previous time, there were no casualties.

"This is more serious," the source said, without giving details of the state of the injured or saying whether the helicopter was in the air or on the ground when the shots were fired.

In late October, violence broke out at Dongo in the northern Equateur province between the Lobala (or Enyele) and Bamboma (or Boba) communities, who come respectively from the villages of Enyele and Monzaya, but also live in other nearby settlements.

For years, these ethnic groups have argued rights to waters rich in fish and the dispute has flared up into violence. The United Nations says people have been killed with machetes and firearms.

Some have also drowned, trying to cross the Oubangui river to seek refuge in the Republic of Congo.

Equateur Province's minister of the interior, Guy Inenge, told AFP that Dongo was attacked on Thursday "by about 1,000 Enyele.

They did not succeed in taking Dongo, because the police resisted."

Dongo has been completely deserted after fighting late in October, with corpses lying in the streets, and many homes and stores have been burned. The clashes have recently spread to other villages.

The reasons for the violence committed by the Lobala, some of whom were arrested by police on November 8, remain unclear.

For Inenge, it is "an insurrection which is more than a simple conflict about ponds." Inenge blamed former rebels of the Movement for the Liberation

of Congo, which was once active in Equateur province. "They have assault rifles and rocket-launchers."

Government spokesman Lambert Mende on November 20 broached the possibility that the Lobala were engaged in "a action of criminal ethnic cleansing."

About 53,000 people have fled the violence: 37,000 to the north of the Congo Republic, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and about 16,000 others who have stayed in the DR Congo, according to MONUC.

Until recently, the district was under the control of the Congolese police and a MONUC unit of about 20 peacekeeping troops.