DR Congo Kasai conflict: 'Thousands dead' in violence

More than 3,300 people have been killed in the violence
 in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Kasai region 
since last October, the Catholic Church says.

The figure, reported by Reuters, is from Church sources 
in the country.

The deaths are the result of clashes between the army 
and a rebel group, but civilians have also been caught 
up in the violence.

The UN has reported on the discovery of more than 20 
mass graves but has put the death toll so far at about 400.

According to the Church, 20 villages have been completely
destroyed, half of them by government troops.

The UN human rights chief, Prince Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, 
said investigators in Kasai province had identified dozens 
of mass graves along with harrowing evidence of people 
being shot, burned or hacked to death.

Atrocities were being carried out by the security forces 
and a government-backed militia, known as the Bana 
Mura, which was set up to help fight a rival group known 
as the Kamuina Nsapu, Prince Zeid said.

He added that local authorities had denied the UN 
access to information about what was happening in the region. The UN has said it has evidence that hundreds 
of villagers from the Luba and Lulua ethnic groups have 
been killed.

The UN Human Rights Council is likely to vote this 
week on whether to mandate an independent 
investigation into the violence following what the 
group's commissioner described as horrific atrocities committed in Kasai province.

The Congolese authorities have said they would reject it.

More than a million people have been displaced in the 
region in the last year and aid workers say the humanitarian response on the ground has so far been inadequate.

Violence erupted in the once peaceful Kasai region last August, after the death of a local leader during fighting 
with security forces.