New rebel attack in Congo kills more than a dozen people
More than a dozen people are dead in the latest rebel attack near the city of Beni, where outraged residents this week stormed a United Nations base to demand protection, a local official said Wednesday.
The attack in Oicha, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Beni, took place overnight, said Beni territory administrator Donat Kibwana. He blamed the Uganda-based Allied Democratic Forces rebels, who have killed more than 1,500 people in and around Beni in the past four years, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Three protesters have been killed by police and four others killed by UN peacekeepers trying to disperse the crowds, a civil society spokesman, Ghislain Muhiwa, asserted.
The UN mission, accused of inaction, has said it cannot carry out operations unilaterally in a region where Congo’s military is already active, and that it cannot participate in Congolese military operations without being invited.
After an emergency meeting Monday, Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi decided to allow joint operations between Congolese and UN forces in Beni following the protests that also burned the town hall.
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