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DRC: Eight Rwandan Hutu rebels among twelve killed in DRC
Tue. April 17, 2007 04:35 am.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) Eight Rwandan Hutu rebels are among the twelve people killed during an offensive by the military of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the eastern Kivu region, a general said on Monday.
“The army launched an operation against the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) between April 12 and 15 which led to the death of 12 people, including eight Rwandan rebels,” general Sylvian Tshikez said.
The offensive in the forest of Mugaba, about 80km south-west of Bukavu - the capital of South Kivu - claimed the lives of four civilians, general Tshikez, said speaking over the telephone.
The general added that the three of them were related to the rebels. He further said that the army had rescued two Congolese women held hostage by the rebels.
Rwandan Hutu fighters, estimated to be about 10 000-strong by the United Nations, are still present in eastern DR Congo where they continue to terrorise locals. They led 14 attacks in March in the Walungu and Kabare areas, according to Kemal Saiki, spokesperson for the UN mission in the DR Congo (MONUC).
Some of the rebels are accused of having participated in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Some 800 000 people, most of them ethnic Tutsis, were killed within six weeks in Rwanda in 1994 by members of the Hutu ethnic group.
The international community considers their presence in the DR Congo as one of the main threats to stability in the region, though they have been weakened in recent years by division and desertions. –AFP
News Category: Africa
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