Five People Killed in DR Congo by Suspected Ugandan Rebels
Five people were hacked to death overnight in the Beni region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, an area where ruthless Ugandan rebels are active, an official source said Friday.
"Five people were killed with machetes," the administrator of the territory, Amisi Kalonda, said by telephone, reached from Goma, the capital of strife-torn North Kivu province.
The murders took place in Kalongo, near the town of Oicha, about 280 kilometers (174 miles) north of Goma, he added, saying he had no more details of the circumstances.
Teddy Kataliko, head of the civil society association of the Beni territory, said that the "provisional toll" from the latest attack was "five dead".
A series of massacres of civilians, mainly with machetes, has struck the region in recent months.
The attacks are usually blamed on Muslim rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who are opposed to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni but fell back across the border in 1995.
A major regional trading center, Beni lies about 250 kilometers north of Goma.
The large town is the stronghold of the Nande community, whose leaders massively backed a militia supported by Uganda to fight Congolese government forces during the Second Congo War (1998-2003).
Between October and December last year, more than 260 people -- mostly men, women and children -- were slaughtered in Beni and the surrounding area.
In December, a joint operation against the rebels by the Congolese army and troops of the U.N. stabilization mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) helped to restore relative peace.
However, the killings did not stop completely. They also spread around the turn of the year to parts of neighboring Orientale province, further north.
Since January 1, at least 60 people have perished in ADF-style attacks in the Beni territory and Orientale province.
Source: Agence France Presse
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