Twelve villagers hacked to death
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Twelve villagers hacked to death*
From correspondents in Bukava, Congo
May 27, 2007 10:40pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
SUSPECTED Rwandan Hutu rebels hacked to death at least 12 villagers in
the volatile South Kivu region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,
officials said.
“The FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) attacked
Kaniola. They killed them with knives. There are 12 dead,” local
governor Celestin Cibalonza said after visiting the scene.
Villagers put the death toll at 15 and said that several others had been
kidnapped. No independent verification was immediately available.
Kaniola, around 50km west of the provincial capital Bukavu, has for
years been the target of attacks and kidnappings.
The incident comes after the Congolese army, backed by United Nations
troops, launched an offensive against rebels in the area in April in
which at least one rebel camp was destroyed.
“It was a reprisal. They targeted houses. The victims included the
father of a girl kidnapped by the FDLR and recently freed by the army,”
said Oscar Zihaliwa, member of a local association of village elders.
“They silently entered the house. They started by strangling some
victims before stabbing them to stop them raising the alarm,” he said.
“After the massacre they fled towards the hills.”
Rwandan Hutu rebels - numbered by the United Nations at more than 10,000
- have been operating in the forests and mountains of eastern DRC ever
since the genocide of at least 800,000 mostly minority Tutsis in Rwanda
in 1994.
Local government and military officials were due to visit Kaniola later
in the day.