Watsa is a community in Province Orientale of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

, administrative center of the Watsa Territory

Watsa Territory

Watsa Territory is an administrative area in the Haut-Uele District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.The administrative center is the town of Watsa.-Security issues:...

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Watsa was the location of the VI battalion of the Force Publique

Force Publique

The Force Publique , French for "Public Force", was both a gendarmerie and a military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, , through the period of direct Belgian colonial rule...

 in the 1940s and 1950s.

Between 1998 and 2000, co-circulating Marburg virus

Marburg virus

Marburg virus disease is the name for the human disease caused by any of the two marburgviruses Marburg virus and Ravn virus...

 and Ravn virus

Ravn virus

Ravn virus is a close relative of the much more commonly known Marburg virus . RAVV causes severe disease in humans and in nonhuman primates in the form of viral hemorrhagic fever...

 caused 154 cases of Marburg virus disease and 128 deaths among illegal gold miners in Watsa and the nearby Durba Mine

Durba Mine

Durba is a gold mine in the Haut-Uele District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.It lies within the Kilo-Moto greenstone belt.As of 2011 a joint venture between AngloGold Ashanti and Randgold was actively developing a concession centered on this mine....

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In January and February 2011 the Lords Resistance Army attacked people in the territories of Dungu

Dungu Territory

Dungu is a territory in the Haut-Uele District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The administrative center is the town of Dungu, which lies on both sides of the Uele River.The territory is divided into the Ndolomo, Malingindu and Wando chiefdoms....

, Faradje

Faradje Territory

Faradje Territory is an administrative area in the Haut-Uele District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The main town is Faradje, lying on the Dungu River....

, Niangara

Niangara Territory

Niangara Territory is an administrative region in the Haut-Uele District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its headquarters is the town of Niangara, lying on both sides of the Uele River.-Security problems:...

and Watsa, causing 33,000 people to be displaced. They were slow to return due to the feeble response of government security forces.