Militia kills 18, kidnaps 50 in Congo

KINSHASA - Militia fighters have shot or hacked to death 18 people and kidnapped about 50 others in an attack on a group of villages in eastern Democratic Republic Congo, a provincial governor said on Tuesday.

"This was a deadly attack: 18 villagers were killed, lots of others were injured, 11 of them seriously, and about 50 people have been kidnapped and taken into the forests," said Didace Kaningini, interim governor of South Kivu province.

"These people were killed after they were shot or hacked to death by machetes and knives. But most of the injured were hurt by the latter," Kaningini said.

He said the attack happened late on Monday in a group of villages called Bihira, 80km northwest of Bukavu. No further confirmation could immediately be made.

Some local people blamed fighters from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) Hutu rebel group, which includes people accused of taking part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide of 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The FDLR, some of whose members were chased out of Rwanda following the genocide and took refuge in the jungles of neighbouring Congo, said in March it was ending its war against Rwanda and would transform its fight into a political struggle.

The rebels have been at the centre of tensions in Congo's lawless eastern region. The vast country was crippled by a five-year war that ended in 2003 after claiming around 4 million lives, mainly from conflict-related hunger and disease.

- REUTERS