East Congo Militants Kill at Least 22 in String of Attacks

BY A STAFF REPORTER: At least 22 people have been killed in attacks by suspected militants in the Eastern Ituri and North Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The incident was the latest in a wave of violence that has continued in eastern Congo over the years, despite growing intervention by the country's military and UN peacekeepers. At least 12 people have been killed in a simultaneous operation in several villages in Ituri province. Local officials and civil society leaders blamed the Codeco group. Colonel Alain Kiwewa, the administrator of the surrounding Lubero region, said the militants killed 10 more people and abducted three others in the village of Naguli, at the foot of Mount Kiavirimu in northern Kivu. Kiwewa blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan armed group based in eastern Congo, for the attack.