Image copyright Reuters Image caption There have been months of unrest in Kasai, after a local chief started a rebellion

Two UN experts who were missing in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been found dead, officials say.

The bodies of US citizen Michael Sharp and Swedish national Zaida Catalan were discovered in the central Kasai region, a government spokesman said.

They were abducted two weeks ago after going to Kasai to investigate reports of abuses after local rebels took up arms.

Some 40 police officers were found beheaded in the region at the weekend.

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende confirmed reports of the discovery to the BBC.

Mr Mende said that the bodies were found in a shallow grave, adding that "the woman was found beheaded, but the body of the man was intact".

In a statement from UN headquarters in UN, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said they "lost their lives seeking to understand the causes of conflict and insecurity'' in DR Congo.

"The United Nations will do everything possible to ensure that justice is done," he added.

Earlier, Mr Mende said that two bodies "of Caucasian or European type" had been discovered on the road linking Bukonde to Tshimbulu in Central Kasai.

"As far as I know, no other white individuals are missing here," Mr Mende said.

He later told reporters that a police commissioner had returned from Kasai with confirmation of their identities.

"According to a witness, they were ambushed by the famous traditionalist Kamwina Nsapu militia, who behead their victims," he said.

A third body found in the same location was that of their interpreter, Betu Tshintela.

'Words fail me'

Mr Sharp and Ms Catalan were taken, along with four Congolese support staff, into the forest near the village of Ngombe in Kasai.

The Congolese government is fighting a rebel group which operates in the area and is believed to have kidnapped the experts.

The violence in Kasai was sparked by the killing of traditional leader Kamwina Nsapu, who was leading an uprising against President Joseph Kabila.

Before Mr Mende announced the bodies had been identified, John Sharp, Michael's father, expressed his heartbreak on Facebook.

"This is a message I hoped never to write... Dental records and DNA samples will be used to confirm the identities," Mr Sharp wrote.

"All other words fail me."</s>ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Villagers in Democratic Republic of Congo discovered the remains of two U.N. investigators and their Congolese interpreter who went missing this month in an area engulfed in a violent uprising, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Michael Sharp, a U.S. citizen, and Zaida Catalan, a Swedish national, had been in a group of experts monitoring a sanctions regime imposed on Congo by the U.N. Security Council when they disappeared in Kasai Central province.

In a statement issued in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed that the remains of the two investigators missing since March 12 had been found in Congo and said the world body would conduct an inquiry.

Villagers found the bodies of two Caucasians and one Congolese not far from where the experts group vanished, according to the government.

Police informed the authorities in the capital Kinshasa on Monday and a team including the provincial police commissioner was sent to the scene to identify the bodies.

“It’s now a certainty. It is the two investigators. We identified the third body in the grave with them as their Congolese interpreter,” Communications Minister Lambert Mende told Reuters.

John Sharp, the father of Michael, posted on his Facebook page that the bodies of two Caucasians had been found in a shallow grave, saying that there was a “high probability” that it was the U.N. officials.

“This is a message I hoped never to write,” he wrote, adding that DNA tests and dental records would be used to confirm the identities of the bodies.

Guterres said the United Nations would cooperate with Congolese authorities in searching for the four Congolese nationals who accompanied the U.N. officials.

“In case of criminal acts, the United Nations will do everything possible to ensure that justice is done,” the U.N. chief said.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry said it would not comment on the incident as it was being handled by the United Nations.

Congo’s Kasai Central region is the epicenter of the Kamuina Nsapu insurgency that has now spread to five provinces in the loosely governed Central African country.

The Kinshasa government said earlier this month the two U.N. officials had fallen into the hands of unidentified “negative forces” along with four Congolese who were with them near the village of Ngombe in Kasai Central.

“Going to places where few people go, asking questions that few people ask, finding out the truth, this is the work of United Nations experts,” said Emilie Serralta, a former coordinator of the U.N. Congo group. “This is how the reports and recommendations (guiding) the Security Council are written.”

Kamuina Nsapu militants pose an increasingly serious threat to President Joseph Kabila, whose decision to stay on beyond the end of his elected mandate last December has sent ripples of unrest across the vast mining powerhouse.

U.N. figures indicate that over 400 people have been killed in violence in which militants have been blamed for atrocities and government forces are accused of targeting civilians.

Local officials said on Saturday militiamen decapitated about 40 police officers in the deadliest attack on the security forces since the uprising began last year.</s>The UN, the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU) and the International Organization of La Francophonie (IOF) today released a joint statement warning that the level of violence and reported human rights violations necessitate “an urgent response from the country’s political leaders.”

The statement calls on defence and security forces to exercise restraint in the efforts to restore order, and encourages the recently-initiated dialogue between the Government and the Kamuina Nsapu militia.

The UN, AU, EU and IOF also reiterated their call for a credible investigation into the human rights violation and assurances that the perpetrators are held to account.

In the joint statement, the organizations underscored their support for the 31 December 2016 political agreement.

The agreement – facilitated by Conférence Episcopale Nationale du Congo (CENCO) mediators, and reached in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, on 31 December 2016 – represents a significant step towards a peacefully managed transition consistent with the democratic principles enshrined in the country’s Constitution.</s>U.N. Human Rights Investigators Killed In Democratic Republic Of The Congo

The United Nations has confirmed that two of its employees, who were looking into violence and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have been killed.

An American, Michael Sharp, and a Swede, Zaida Catalan, had gone missing earlier this month while traveling in the region. Tuesday, Congolese officials said their bodies, along with that of their interpreter, had been found in Central Kasai province.

Sharp's father, John, had posted to his Facebook page the news that remains had been found that appeared to be those of his son and his son's colleague. "This is a message I hoped never to write," John Sharp said. "All other words fail me."

In confirming the deaths of Sharp and Catalan, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply saddened:

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Sharp "selflessly put himself in harm's way to try to make a difference in the lives of the Congolese people. His courage and desire to serve others is an example for us all."

"Both of them did very brave, difficult work in dangerous situations, and it was all in order to expose human rights violations and put pressure on authorities who might be able to do something about it," says Holly Dranginis of the activist group called the Enough project. A friend of Sharp's, she is calling for an independent investigation.

Two years ago, NPR profiled Sharp, who was in his 30s and worked at the time with the Congolese Protestant Council of Churches in their Peace and Reconciliation Program. Correspondent Gregory Warner reported on meeting Sharp on a commuter boat crossing Lake Kivu, and learning about his work.

Greg quoted Sharp as saying the church program helped persuade some 1,600 fighters to lay down their weapons and leave the forest they'd occupied for two decades.

Describing his work, Sharp had said, "You can always listen. You can always listen to people who want a chance to talk about how they see the world."</s>U.N. Human Rights Investigators Killed In Democratic Republic Of The Congo

The United Nations has confirmed that two of its employees, who were looking into violence and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have been killed.

An American, Michael Sharp, and a Swede, Zaida Catalan, had gone missing earlier this month while traveling in the region. Tuesday, Congolese officials said their bodies, along with that of their interpreter, had been found in Central Kasai province.

Sharp's father, John, had posted to his Facebook page the news that remains had been found that appeared to be those of his son and his son's colleague. "This is a message I hoped never to write," John Sharp said. "All other words fail me."

In confirming the deaths of Sharp and Catalan, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply saddened:

Two years ago, NPR profiled Sharp, who was in his 30s and worked at the time with the Congolese Protestant Council of Churches in their Peace and Reconciliation Program. Correspondent Gregory Warner reported on meeting Sharp on a commuter boat crossing Lake Kivu, and learning about his work.

"Every few weeks Sharp and his church colleagues would walk, unarmed, to the base of the rebels known as the FDLR (Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda). There they'd sit in the shade of banana trees to drink tea with the rebels and listen to their stories. Certain sensitive subjects — sexual violence against villagers, recruitment of child soldiers — were no-go, he says, because the aim was building rapport with the rebel faction. 'The more we interact [with them] the more they trust us to turn themselves in to us.'"

Greg quoted Sharp as saying the church program helped persuade some 1,600 fighters to lay down their weapons and leave the forest they'd occupied for two decades.</s>The United States has issued a travel warning against visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, after the bodies of two missing UN researchers and their translator were found lying in a shallow grave.

Michael Sharp, a 34-year-old from Kansas, and Zaida Catalan, 36, from Sweden, went missing on March 12, having set out to investigate mass graves in the Kasai province.

On Monday their bodies were found in a shallow grave, along with that of Bete Tshintela.

On Wednesday the state department updated its previous advice, and now recommends that all US citizens avoid unnecessary travel to the DRC.</s>The bodies of an American and a Swedish investigator for the United Nations were found in a shallow grave in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than two weeks after they disappeared, the U.N. confirmed Tuesday.

American Michael Sharp and Swede Zaida Catalan were members of a U.N. Group of Experts investigating violence and alleged human rights violations by the Congolese army and local militia groups in the Central Kasai province. Sharp, Zaida, their Congolese interpreter Bete Tshintela, and their three local drivers all went missing March 12 while working in the region.

Congo's police inspector general, Charles Bisengimana, said the bodies were found Monday between the cities of Tshimbulu and Kananga, the provincial capital.

The U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres confirmed their deaths in a statement released Tuesday evening, offering his condolences to their families. In the statement, Guterres promised an inquiry into the cause of their deaths and asked the Congolese authorities to "conduct a full investigation into this incident." He urged the local authorities to continue searching for the four Congolese nationals who are still missing.

"Michael and Zaida lost their lives seeking to understand the causes of conflict and insecurity in the DRC in order to help bring peace to the country and its people," Guterres said in the statement. "We will honor their memory by continuing to support the invaluable work of the Group of Experts and the whole UN family in the DRC."

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley also praised Sharp's professionalism.

"Michael was working on the front lines of what we try to do at the United Nations every day: find problems and fix them," Haley said in a statement. "He selflessly put himself in harm's way to try to make a difference in the lives of the Congolese people."

Sharp, 34, was the middle child of two sisters from Kansas. His father, John Sharp, told NBC News that an "unidentified militia group" was responsible for his kidnapping when he first learned his son went missing.

His father said his son was dedicated to doing humanitarian work in eastern Congo even before he joined the United Nations.

"It's really odd that some people think that violence is the answer to the problem, it's illogical," Sharp told NBC News.</s>Villagers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have found the remains of two UN investigators and their Congolese interpreter who went missing this month in an area engulfed in a violent uprising.



Michael Sharp, a US citizen, and Zaida Catalan, a Swedish national, had been in a group of experts monitoring a sanctions regime imposed on Congo by the UN security council when they disappeared in Kasai Central province.

Villagers found three bodies – two Caucasians and one Congolese – not far from where the experts group vanished, according to the government.

Police informed the authorities in the capital Kinshasa on Monday and a team including the provincial police commissioner was sent to the scene to identify the bodies.

“It’s now a certainty. It is the two investigators. We identified the third body in the grave with them as their Congolese interpreter,” said communications minister Lambert Mende.

The Kinshasa government said earlier this month that the two UN officials had fallen into the hands of unidentified “negative forces” along with four Congolese who were with them near the village of Ngombe in Kasai Central.

John Sharp, the father of Michael, posted on his Facebook page that the bodies of two Caucasians had been found in a shallow grave, saying that there was a “high probability” that it was the UN officials.

“This is a message I hoped never to write,” he wrote, adding that DNA tests and dental records would be used to confirm the identities of the bodies.

The United Nations said it was still examining the remains.

“We cannot, at this moment, confirm that they are the bodies of the experts. We hope to be able to provide more information on this soon,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

The Swedish foreign ministry said it would not comment on the incident as it was being handled by the United Nations.

Congo’s Kasai Central region is the epicentre of the Kamuina Nsapu militant insurgency that has now spread to five provinces in the loosely governed central African country. The militants pose an increasingly serious threat to President Joseph Kabila, whose decision to stay on beyond the end of his elected mandate last December has sent ripples of unrest across the vast mining country.

Officials said on Saturday militiamen decapitated about 40 police officers in the deadliest attack on the security forces since the uprising began last year.

UN figures indicate that more than 400 people have been killed in violence in which militants have been blamed for atrocities and government forces are accused of targeting civilians.

“Going to places where few people go, asking questions that few people ask, finding out the truth, this is the work of United Nations experts,” said Emilie Serralta, a former coordinator of the UN Congo group. “This is how the reports and recommendations [guiding] the security council are written.”</s>DAKAR, Senegal — Two United Nations investigators and their Congolese interpreter have been found dead two weeks after going missing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Congolese government said on Tuesday.

Villagers on Monday stumbled on the bodies of Michael Sharp, a US citizen, Swedish national Zaida Catalan, and Congolese translator Betu Tshintela in a shallow grave in Kasai Central, a province some 1,700 kilometers from the capital of Kinshasa. The two UN experts had been monitoring sanctions imposed on the central African country by the UN Security Council.

Accompanied by Tshintela, Sharp and Catalan had spent two weeks in Kasai investigating reports of rights abuses after local rebels took up arms against the government in recent months. They were criss-crossing the town on motorbikes when they were snatched on a bridge on March 13, Congolese communications minister Lambert Mende said at the time. The three Congolese motorbike drivers also disappeared alongside them — the identity of their captors remains unconfirmed.

MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission based in the country, deployed "Uruguayan peacekeepers and Tanzanian special forces on a search and rescue operation for the missing people," but to no avail. According to Human Rights Watch, it was the first time UN workers had ever been reported missing in the country.

A Congolese government spokesperson said Tuesday the bodies had been identified. "It is the two investigators. We identified the third body in the grave with them as their Congolese interpreter," Mende told Reuters.

Sharp’s father, John, a professor at Hesston College, posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday that the bodies were being identified using dental records and DNA samples. “This is a message I hoped never to write. Since no other Caucasians have been reported missing in that region, there is a high probability that these are the bodies of MJ and Zaida,” he wrote.</s>BENI, Congo — The bodies of an American and a Swedish investigator with the United Nations and their Congolese interpreter were found in Central Kasai province, authorities said Tuesday, more than two weeks after they disappeared while looking into recent violence there.

“After tests … it is possible to identify the bodies as the two U.N. experts and their interpreter as being found near the Moyo river,” Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said. Investigations will continue to seek other missing Congolese colleagues, he said.

Michael Sharp of the United States and Zaida Catalan of Sweden, along with interpreter Betu Tshintela, driver Isaac Kabuayi and two motorbike drivers, went missing March 12 while looking into large-scale violence and alleged human rights violations by the Congolese army and local militia groups.

Congo’s police inspector general, Charles Bisengimana, said the bodies were found Monday between the cities of Tshimbulu and Kananga, the provincial capital.

The confirmation came a day after Sharp’s father, John Sharp of Hesston, Kansas, wrote on his Facebook page that the bodies of two Caucasians had been found in shallow graves in the search area, saying there was a high probability the dead were his son and his son’s colleague.

Sweden’s national police said Wednesday it has initiated a murder investigation into the death of the Swedish expert for the United Nations.

The brief police statement said police and prosecutors in Sweden were co-operating with the investigation.

Sweden’s prime minister urged the U.N. and Congo to investigate after the bodies were found Monday in a central Congo province that in recent months has seen hundreds killed in violence between security forces and local militia fighters.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world body would conduct an inquiry into what happened to the two experts. He said the cause of their deaths hadn’t yet been determined.

“Michael and Zaida lost their lives seeking to understand the causes of conflict and insecurity in the DRC (Congo) in order to help bring peace to the country and its people,” Guterres said in a statement, sending his condolences to their families.

Sharp and Catalan’s disappearance is the first time U.N. experts have been reported missing in Congo, Human Rights Watch has said, and it is the first recorded disappearance of international workers in the Kasai provinces.

Parts of Congo, particularly the east, have experienced insecurity for decades, but violence in the Kasai provinces in central Congo represents a new expansion of tensions.

The Kamwina Nsapu militia has been fighting security forces since last year, with the violence increasing after government troops killed the militia’s leader in August. More than 400 people have been killed and more than 200,000 displaced since then, according to the U.N.

When asked earlier Tuesday whether the investigators’ disappearance could be a turning point in the U.N. sending experts to the region, Guterres’ deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, said: “We hope that we could continue to send experts to do their necessary monitoring activities wherever they need to go. Of course, that needs to be undertaken with full respect and understanding of the security condition on the ground.”
Authorities find the remains of two missing U.N. investigators—former Swedish politician Zaida Catalán and U.S. national Michael Sharp—in a shallow grave in the province of Kasaï-Central, Democratic Republic of the Congo.