Rwandan security forces kill 19 terrorists

KIGALI: Rwandan security forces killed 19 "terrorists" blamed for a weekend attack that left 14 dead near the Volcanoes National Park, famous for its mountain gorilla sanctuary, police said on Sunday.

"The security forces were able to follow these terrorists, to kill 19 of them and arrest five," the police said in a statement, following the attack overnight on Friday in northern Rwanda. Tourism officials insisted on Saturday that all visitors to the park were safe after the attack in Musanze district, near the border with the DR Congo.

The death toll from the attack, carried out with knives, machetes and stones, according to the police statement, was initially set at eight. The area has repeatedly been targeted by Rwandan rebels operating from the DRC.

One such group is the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, created by Rwandan Hutu refugees in eastern DRC after the 1994 genocide of Tutsis by majority Hutus in Rwanda.