Ntoto, 29 January 2011 - For the second time in a week MONUSCO Blue Helmets intervened in the North Kivu town of Ntoto and rescued six Congolese National Police Officers that were abducted by Mai Mai fighters.

The early warning centre at the Ntoto military Base was initially informed about the abduction of the local National Police chief late on January 29. The Blue helmets immediately swung into action and closed in on the house where they suspected the police chief was being held. Not only was he in there, five of his colleagues were found in the same house under siege. The Indian troops used both diplomacy and their numerical strength to rescue them. No ransom was paid, no gunshots exchanged.

In another development, suspected members of the Democratic Force for the Liberation of Rwanda, FDLR were prevented from making away with their loot after an attack on the South Kivu town of Mwenga on the night of Monday and Tuesday. The town priest informed a MONUSCO official about the attack at about 1.a.m. The attackers had entered three houses, looted household goods and forced five people, including a woman, to carry the goods on the head. But barely ten minutes after the MONUSCO troops were informed they went into action. The suspected FDLR troops abandoned their hostages and their loot and fled into the nearby forest.