Kampala, Jun 01: At least 100 people were massacred at the weekend in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), near the southern tip of Lake Albert, a Ugandan Army officer said today.
A DRC rebel official put the number of dead at more than 250, including about 20 babies.
Fighters from the Ituri region's majority Lendu ethnic group attacked the rival Hemas "in Kyomya, about 30 km from the Ugandan border, when they realised that withdrawing Ugandan forces -- stuck there due to heavy rains -- had finally withdrawn," Ugandan Army Brigadier Kale Kaihura told a news agency.
"The Lendus attacked from the Zumbe hills facing Kasenyi," Kaihura added.
Bawunde Kisangani, the secretary-general of the Party for the Unity and Safeguard of Integrity of Congo (PUSIC), a Hema group, told the news agency the toll was much higher.
"We counted 253 dead bodies at Kyomya who had been killed by Lendu combatants and they included about 20 babies," he said.
He said the attackers used machetes and rifles to kill their victims, who included people they found in a local hospital.
"They stormed a hospital and killed people they found there," he added, saying the attackers included fighters of another rebel group, the Congolese rally for Democracy-Liberation movement, as well as Kinshasa government troops.
Bureau Report
