Congo: Approximately 50 people killed by Islamists
Funeral after the massacre by Ugandan Islamist rebels.
In the night of Saturday to Sunday, August 14, 2016, approximately 50 people were killed by machete blows and axes in Beni, in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The spokesman for the Congolese army told Agence France Presse on August 15 that Muslim rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were responsible. The ADF “skirted” the army’s positions “to come and massacre the population in reprisal for the military operations in course in the region,” he specified.
A national period of mourning of three days has been appointed by the authorities. On the feast of the Assumption, Pope Francis denounced the “shameful silence” of the international community. A statement signed by Bishop Marcel Utembe, president of the Congolese National Bishops’ Conference (CNBC), the Congolese bishops declared themselves to be “profoundly shocked and saddened” by this new tragedy, qualified as “infamous massacre.” On the site of the bishops’ conference, they called for the Congolese authorities to “guarantee the safety of the population and their property, to do everything in their power to halt this cycle of atrocities.”
As Le Monde of August 15 recalled, the Ugandan Muslim rebels, opposed to Ugandan President Yoweri Musveni, have been present in eastern DRC since 1995. They are accused of being the chief authours of massacres entailing over 600 civilian deaths in the area of Beni since October 2014.
(Sources: kipa-apic.ch – RFI – AFP – Le Monde – DICI no. 340, 09/09/16)
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