Militias under the control of Rwandan Hutus driven from that country following their genocidal campaign have killed upwards of 30 civilians in recent days in a village in the eastern Congo. The victims, mostly women and children were burned alive in their huts. The so-called rebels said they carried out the atrocity to punish villagers for supporting United Nations forces in the region.
Freddy Mantchombe, the head of Congo section of the International Medical Corps charity, said local people told his staff that houses had been torched during the raid by rebels from neighboring Rwanda based in eastern Congo. Quoted on Aljazeera Mantchombe said, "Our teams were in the area yesterday and they were told by the district health authorities that 39 houses were burned down, 26 people were killed and another four are seriously injured”.
According to AFP the armed gang herded dozens of civilians into their huts and then set them ablaze.
A Congolese government official quoted rebels as putting the death toll at 76 from the attack.
It is reported that during the attack the militia men told their victims, “…to call on their U.N. saviors.”
The Rwandan Hutu militias have been active in the area for years now and their record of massacres is well known. These hard-line Hutu leaders fled to eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo after the genocide Rwanda,fearing reprisals, and started to regroup and re-arm in the refugee camps, forcibly recruiting children from their camps into the movement.
The attack took place in Sud-Kivu province which borders on Rwanda and Burundiwhich is one of the most volatile parts of the Congo. Sources: Baku Today, AFP, Aljazeera, AlertNet
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