GOMA, DR Congo: Four people were killed Thursday in Democratic Republic of Congo's in a shootout between police and the guards of an opposition parliamentarian suspected of running a militia, police said.
The incident occurred in Goma, a major city in the east of the sprawling country.
"We laid siege at the residence of parliamentarian Dieudonne Bakungu at 4 a.m. (0300GMT) to carry out a raid. But on our arrival, there was an exchange of fire between his guards and police," Oscar Sadiki, who led the police operation, told AFP.
"Two policemen tried to scale the wall and were shot by the guards" of Bakungu, who was elected in 2006 on the ruling party's ticket before switching to the opposition.
Military police rushed onsite, and during a fresh exchange of gunfire, two of Bakungu's guards were killed and several police injured.
Bakunga, 54, is an elected MP of Nord-Kivu's Masisi constituency, one of DR Congo's most unstable territories due to the large numbers of local and foreign armed groups that run rampant in the region.
According to the UN refugee agency, an upsurge in violence involving government troops and militia in eastern DR Congo has forced 100,000 people from their homes since November.
Attacks between rival militia groups in North Kivu's Walikale and Masisi territories are thought to have left 22 dead and an unidentified number of women were raped, the agency said in January.