16 dead, Ugandan militants blamed

BENI: Suspected Islamist militants killed 16 people and burnt down houses on Wednesday in a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a witness and a civil society leader said.

An army spokesperson said yesterday that a combat patrol unit had clashed with the rebels.

“All of a sudden we heard gunshots. Our first instinct was to flee. This morning we found 16 bodies, the victims including my eldest son,” said Luc Kakule Messo, a resident of the village of Kalembo, near the city of Beni.

Mumbere Meleki Mulala, a co-ordinator of a human rights network, confirmed the death toll and blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan armed group active in the region.