"The U.N. mission is deploying a fact-finding mission to gather more
details about this horrific incident," he said, adding that 1,500
people fled towards Ituri province in the wake of the attack.
Suspected rebels in eastern Congo kill 16 in raid on village(Standard Media)
Suspected rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo attacked a village overnight, killing 16 civilians and wounding seven others, a U.N. spokesman said on Wednesday.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo reported that suspected fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces
(ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, raided the village of Luna, north of
Beni in North Kivu province, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the
U.N. Secretary General.
"The U.N. mission is deploying a fact-finding mission to gather more details about this horrific incident," he said, adding that 1,500 people fled towards Ituri province in the wake of the attack.
Eastern
Congo has been plagued by instability and conflict for two decades and
civilians are often the target of militia, rebels and military units.
Competition for the region's mineral resources has helped fuel the
fighting.
There were at least 17 victims including
eight women and four children who were shot and hacked to death, said
the Centre of Study for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human
Rights (CEPADHO), which documents violence in North Kivu.
The
raid on Luna took place 300 metres from two U.N. mission bases, Omar
Kavota, executive director of CEPADHO, said in a statement, adding that
seven of the dead were from one family.
An
American researcher on Congo reported in April that soldiers had taken
part in massacres of civilians in northeastern Congo since 2014.
The Kinshasa government has blamed most of the killings on the ADF, which has operated in the area since the 1990s.
The government subsequently expelled the researcher, Jason Stearns.
Political tensions are high in Congo, where President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, is required by the constitution to step down before the end of the year.
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