The death toll from killings of suspected sorcerers in Ituri province in northeastern DRC has doubled from previous estimates to some 843 people as reports of more killings arrive from remote areas, a Ugandan army officer told Reuters on Wednesday. "The death toll has reached 843," military intelligence Captain Alfred Opio was quoted as saying. "I was in Aru [Ituri province] on Monday, and those are the figures I got from the governor." Maj. Bule Bangulu Mohamed, governor of Ituri province, is currently heading a commission of inquiry into the massacres, rebel-controlled Radio Candip reported on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, Opio reported a death toll of 394 on 4 July from killings carried out in June. Opio said nearly 150 suspected killers had been arrested in a joint operation by local police and the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), which maintains a strong presence in this part of the DRC. "They are being held in a prison in Aru," Reuters quoted Opio as saying. "They say they were instructed by their chiefs to do the killing." In the village of Zaki, northwest of Aru, where 175 people were reported killed, dozens of bodies had been tossed into pit latrines, according to Opio, Reuters reported.