MBANDAKA, Congo (AP) — Eric Nkumu Bunita went to war armed only with some water and herbs he believed would protect him from gunfire.

The skinny 27-year-old’s career as a fighter for Congo’s newest rebel movement lasted a mere four weeks.

Congo’s latest rebel movement, which Nkumu said is taking its orders from an exiled witchdoctor, is opening a new front in what was a relatively peaceful corner of this enormous Central African nation long brutalized by violent rebel groups.

An estimated 100 people have been killed and some 200,000 others have been displaced from their homes in more than six months of fighting in which the rebels have defeated Congolese army troops several times, according to the United Nations.

Experts say the country’s new rebellion is gaining support from armed militants loyal to Jean-Pierre Bemba, a warlord originally from Equateur province who is now facing trial at the International Criminal Court, as well as from disgruntled soldiers demobilized without benefits.

John Holmes, the U.N. chief for humanitarian affairs, visited Mbandaka over the weekend and warned in an interview with The Associated Press that the premature withdrawal of the U.N. peacekeeping force known as MONUC could worsen the situation in Congo.

Congo’s military says the situation in Equateur province is “under control,” downplaying the implications of attacks that have stretched the resources of the largest and most expensive U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world and embarrassed the president.

The U.N. reports at least 8,300 rapes were committed against women in eastern Congo last year, averaging 160 rapes a week.

The new group, which calls itself Nzobo Yalobo according to Nkumu, has fed off of grievances about Equateur province being marginalized since its most famous son, former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, was ousted in 1997 by a rebellion that splintered the country among various warlords.

It’s also called the Independent Liberation Movement of the Allies.

One month ago, this new rebel group in Equateur attacked the provincial capital of Mbandaka, defeating a small force of U.N. peacekeepers guarding the airport and overcoming scores of Congolese army troops to plunder other strategic targets — the main administrative compound, the governor’s office and the governor’s residence.

The Congolese branch of the African Association of Human Rights in part blames local frustration that has mounted in Equateur amid arrests and detentions of people associated with Bemba, another son of Equateur and former warlord who is standing trial in The Hague for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

• Michelle Faul