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DRC-UNREST LEAD
A dozen civilians dead in DR Congo rebel attack: witnesses
BENI, DR Congo, Sept 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Sixteen people, including 12
civilians, were killed in a rebel attack on Beni in the Democratic Republic
of Congo’s restive east, witnesses told AFP on Sunday.
A doctor at the local hospital reported seeing 16 dead bodies, “including
12 civilians and four soldiers or rebels.” Eight people were injured, of whom
five civilians, in the attack late Saturday.
The Beni region is under siege from the Allied Defence Forces (ADF), an
Islamist rebel group blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths over the past
four years.
Foreign humanitarian workers have been stationed in Beni, in the north Kivu
province near the border with Uganda, since early August to deal with a new
Ebola outbreak in the region. “The surprise attack happened in the streets of
Beni city,” the doctor told AFP. Four of the dead were killed while
travelling in a taxi.
According to several witness accounts, the attack started around 1630-1700
GMT.
Heavy and light calibre gunfire was heard for several hours until after
midnight local time. It was not known whether the army counter-attacked.
The rebels targeted areas near the centre of the trading settlement of
several hundred thousand inhabitants.
The ADF is a militia initially created by Muslim rebels to oppose Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni, but also operates in the DRC.
The group has been in the east of the country since 1995 and are accused by
the UN and Congolese authorities of committing a series of civilian massacres
since 2014.
However, in 2015 the New York University Study Group on Congo said it was
not just the ADF behind the killings and that other armed elements, including
members of the Congolese army, were also to blame. North Kivu, one of the
most populated areas of the DRC, is home to a number of armed groups that
kill or abduct civilians.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1641 hrs