DR Congo: Rebels kill at least 21 civilians in Beni

KIGALI, Rwanda

At least 21 civilians were killed Thursday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a series of attacks by suspected Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), according to a local civil society group.

The latest attacks targeted Mantumbi, Mamove, Mulolya and Aveli towns located west of the city of Oicha in the territory of Beni in North Kivu province

“The attackers raided Mamove center around 3 p.m. local time. They killed six people, including three women, two men and a child,” local news site Actualite.cd reported, quoting Kinos Katuho, Mamove's civil society representative.

“The attackers also set several motorcycles on fire in Mamove,” Katuho added.

In Mantumbi, 11 people were shot dead, it said.

Meanwhile, the bodies of two pregnant women who had been abducted Wednesday were found east of the town of Eringeti, according to the civil society group.

At least 36 people were killed in a suspected rebel attack in eastern DR Congo's Beni region on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to nearly 60 in the area within two days.

More than 300 civilians have been killed in what is seen as retaliatory attacks since Congolese forces launched an offensive against armed groups in eastern Congo at the end of last October, according to local NGO the Study Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO).