RantCrush Top 5: March 29, 2017

The United Nations has announced that two U.N. employees who were investigating human rights abuses by the army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have most likely been murdered. American Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan of Sweden went missing a few weeks ago along with an interpreter and three drivers. Yesterday, three bodies were found in a shallow grave. Two of them are most likely Sharp and Catalan, as no other Caucasian people have been reported missing in that area, but a formal identification process will need to take place. The female body had been decapitated.

#UN investigators Zaida Catalán & Michael Sharp found dead in #DRC. Their #Congolese colleagues r still missing @hrw https://t.co/vCr3Mr3dH6 pic.twitter.com/IhrP0vrw91

— Birgit Schwarz (@BirgitMSchwarz) March 29, 2017

The international community is in shock over the killings. “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,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement, and added that the U.N. will do everything it can to make sure that justice is served.

UN people: I’ve never heard of int’l staff from a sanctions committee being murdered like this. Have you? Awful https://t.co/fgosxJGnQT

— Mark Leon Goldberg (@MarkLGoldberg) March 28, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.