Militia beheads 16 people in new DR Congo massacre

BENI, DR Congo: Suspected militia fighters have decapitated 16 people in a new village massacre near Beni in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, civil society sources said on Friday.

Three more civilians were wounded in Beni town by an explosive device on Thursday night, an official source said, in a new tactic in a region beset by militia violence for decades. The killings on Thursday in the Mbau region north of Beni have been blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia group responsible for a string of massacres since the start of November.

"Sixteen decapitated bodies have been found in searches that started in the evening," Jamal Moussa, spokesman for the network of civil society organisations in Mbau told AFP. The massacre targeted the small village of Mantumbi. "The ADF terrorists attacked in daylight (on Thursday), first in the bush where people were in their fields, and then in the village," Moussa said.

DR Congo forces launched operations against the ADF in the eastern region at the end of October. But in response the ADF has carried out massacres, in an apparent bid to discourage civilians from helping the military.

At least 100 people have been killed since November 5 in attacks blamed on the ADF, an Islamist-rooted militia with origins in Uganda. No military sources would officially confirm Thursday’s report, but the Congolese army and UN troops deployed to the vast country have announced joint operations against ADF forces in the Beni region.