A South African man working for UK-based oil firm Soco has been released unharmed after he was kidnapped in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n
He was kidnapped with along with a Congolese soldier when FDLR rebels attacked their vehicle in North Kivu.<\/p>\n
A UN spokesman in DR Congo said no ransom had been paid for his release.<\/p>\n
Rival militias have been battling each other for years in the east for control of the region’s mineral resources.<\/p>\n
South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Department has confirmed that the man – who has not been named – is still in DR Congo and would not give details of how he was released.<\/p>\n
The department’s spokesperson Clayson Monyela said he has been re-united with his family.<\/p>\n
“The government worked very closely with the authorities in the DRC through our embassy as well as his employer to negotiate and secure his release,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
A number of armed groups have been active in North Kivu province since the 1990s.<\/p>\n
They are regularly accused of violence against the civilian population, including killings, rape and looting.<\/p>\n
Some FDLR leaders allegedly took part in the 1994 genocide of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda.<\/p>\n
They then fled to DR Congo and have been at the heart of the country’s unrest in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A South African man working for UK-based oil firm Soco has been released unharmed after he was kidnapped in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He was kidnapped with along with a Congolese soldier when FDLR rebels attacked their vehicle in North Kivu. A UN spokesman in DR Congo said no ransom had been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n