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| Africa Subsaharan |
| 25 Civilians Killed in DR Congo Ethnic Attack |
| 2017-02-20 |
| [An Nahar] Militiamen from the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... 's Nande ethnic group have killed 25 civilians in the country's violence-torn east, almost all of them hacked to death with machetes, local officials and activists said Saturday. "In total 25 people were killed, decapitated by machete by the Mai-Mai Mazembe in and around the village of Kyaghala," Francis Bakundakabo, the local representative of the governor of North Kivu province, told AFP. "All of these people were Hutu civilians," he said, adding that the killings took place between 4:00 am and 8:00 am on Saturday morning. Hope Kubuya, a local civil society activist whose group went to verify the attack, said 24 of the victims had been killed with machetes and one woman rubbed out. "This raid by the Mai-Mai Mazembe in the Hutu village will inflame the inter-ethnic conflict in the region," he added. The Mai-Mai are a "self-defense" militia who count members of DR Congo's Nande, Hunde and Kobo communities among their ranks, in opposition to rivals from the Nyaturu group representing ethnic Hutus. The area around Kyaghala is majority-Hutu. The last major attack to strike the volatile region came in December when at least 35 non-combatants were killed in festivities between fighters from the two groups. DR Congo's Nande, Hunde and Kobo people largely regard Hutus as foreigners, while the migration north of Hutu farmers -- forced to abandon their southern territory due to rising land prices and under pressure from powerful landowners -- has added to the strain. Tensions between the Nande and Hutu communities have been growing worse for more than a year, with a series of village attacks by militia groups on both sides in the center of North Kivu. The province, like much of eastern DRC, has been riven by conflict for more than two decades. Since December, the DRC's political crisis has also worsened, with President Joseph Kabila refusing to step down despite his mandate coming to an end. The international community has urged government and opposition parties in the country to restart deadlocked talks to set up a transition regime ahead of elections due later this year. Though the vast central African nation is rich in mineral wealth and water, it has long been one of the continent's poorest nations and rising unrest has only deepened the economic malaise. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Marquess of Queensberry totally absent? Nearly everything happening there (since the recording of history) contains ethnic origins. Ethnicity is the common denominator for sorting anything and everything out. Promotion of the values of modern civilization through colonization have simply not caught on, and likely never will. Academic achievement and matriculation numbers are in decline as well. If you sense a corollary, you may not be wrong. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-02-20 08:29 |