12 killed in raid by Uganda rebels in DR Congo

Members of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. At least 12 people, including a UN peacekeeper, were killed in an overnight attack by Ugandan rebels in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sources said. PHOTO |

What you need to know:

  • The Study Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO) blamed the attack on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who have moved beyond bases in the Ruwenzori mountains by the Ugandan border.
  • MONUSCO commander General Jean Baillaud confirmed to AFP that a Malawi national serving with the force had been killed, and a second was wounded, when their unit fought the attackers in Eringeti.

GOMA, DR Congo, Monday

At least 12 people, including a UN peacekeeper, were killed in an overnight attack by Ugandan rebels in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sources said.

“I saw four civilians killed by bullets and seven patients and a nurse cut up by machete at the hospital,” a regional official told AFP at Eringeti in the north of the troubled North Kivu province.

A local non-governmental organisation however put the toll much higher, at 30 dead: 14 rebels, seven civilians, eight Congolese soldiers and one soldier with the large UN mission in the DRC.

The Study Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO) blamed the attack on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who have moved beyond bases in the Ruwenzori mountains by the Ugandan border.

MONUSCO commander General Jean Baillaud confirmed to AFP that a Malawi national serving with the force had been killed, and a second was wounded, when their unit fought the attackers in Eringeti.

The rebels “attacked our positions at Eringeti and we repelled them all night,” said a Congolese army spokesman in the region, Lieutenant Mak Hazukay, declining to give any figures.