'Rwandan rebels' massacre 25
2005-10-10 21:30
Bakavu - Suspected rebels from Rwanda massacred 25 people and wounded several others during a night raid on their village in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), said local officials on Monday.
Sud-Kivu acting governor Didace Kaningini said: "We don't know exactly how many people died, but the people say they have already picked up 25 bodies" in Kaniola village after the attack late on Sunday.
He said witnesses believed the raid was "the doing of the Rasta militia", a name taken by a dissident wing of an armed ethnic Hutu movement active on the DRC side of the Rwandan border, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
Local militias, cross-border rebels
Security in the two Kivu provinces, south and north, along with territory further north, had for more than a decade been endangered by local militias and cross-border rebels, who were embroiled in a war that ravaged the vast DRC from 1998 to 2003.
According to a spokesperson in Sud-Kivu, Leokadio Salmeron, a United Nations mission in the country, Monuc, knew of death tolls of between eight and 20.
Salmeron said getting a correct figure was difficult, but "we'll find out later in the day".
A delegation of people from Kaniola who today lived in the provincial capital, Bukavu, left on Monday for the village about 80km to assess the damage and determine how many casualties were there.
Terrorised civilians
Witnesses in the province said the attackers were believed to have come out of the Mugaba forest, Walungu region, which was partly dominated by the Rasta militia known for its cruelty against terrorised civilians.
The main FDLR consists partly of Hutus - held responsible for the Rwandan genocide on 1994 - in which some 800 000 people were killed.
Last March, the FDLR announced an end to their armed struggle, but efforts to repatriate them had been slow and the Kigali government had said suspected killers among Hutus returning from the DRC faced trial like others.