Rwandan combatants attacked a village in eastern Congo on Sunday, killing 17 people, wounding 28 others and taking as many as a dozen people hostage. The attackers carrying machetes, spears and hammers descended on the village of Kanyola in the middle of the night, Constantin Charondagwa said by telephone from Bukavu, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Kanyola.
Charondagwa said he had visited Kanyola and interviewed people who escaped the attack.
"The combatants belong to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, as well as to other armed Rwandan groups. They came from nearby and attacked the village of Kanyola in the middle of the night," Charondagwa said from Bukavu, where his office coordinates work by several local human rights groups. |