[AF.REUTERS] A crowd stoned to death a young man in northeast Congo on Friday before burning and eating his corpse, witnesses said, in apparent revenge for a series of attacks by Ugandan rebels.Now that's a tough neighborhood.
The incident in the town of Beni followed a number of overnight raids in the area blamed on the Islamist group ADF-NALU, who are thought to have massacred more than 100 people this month, using hatchets and machetes to kill their victims.
Now the Islam infection is spreading to the Congo.
Witnesses said the man, who has not been identified, aroused suspicion on a bus when passengers discovered he could not speak the local Swahili language and that he was carrying a machete.
"Hey there, stranger! Yeah, you, the guy with the machete!... Y'ain't from around here, air you?"
Speaking from the town of Beni, Congo's President Joseph Kabila said the ADF-NALU militants would face the same fate as the rebel movement M23, which was defeated by a U.N.-backed government offensive last year.
Wikipedia sez "The ADF was formed by puritanical Muslim Ugandans of the Tabliq sect who merged with the remnants of another rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda. The main figure of the group was Jamil Mukulu, a former Catholic. The members were largely from central Uganda." Uganda claims the group is affiliated with al-Shabaab in Somalia.
"There is no question of negotiation with the terrorists," Kabila said in a speech at a local hotel. "They will be defeated as was the case with the M23. And it will be very soon."
ADF-NALU is an alliance of groups opposed to the Ugandan government that has operated from bases in neighbouring Congo since the mid-2000s, undermining Kinshasa's grip on the area.
I'm guessing that the "Tabliq sect" stems from Tabligi Jamaat or similarly named itinerant preachers (and al-Qaeda recruiters).
The movement was blamed for the deaths of 14 people, killed early on Thursday in the village of Kampi ya Chui, bringing the total death toll this month to at least 107, said Teddy Kataliko, president of the Civil Society of Beni.
Beni seems to be their favored stomping grounds.
Tensions ran high in the town on Friday morning with around 100 demonstrators blocking the road from the airport into town, throwing stones and waving machetes to demand greater government protection against the rebels.
Local government officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Earlier in the week, the government sought to downplay the threat posed by the group, which it had previously said was defeated in an operation earlier this year.
Swarming in like Boko Haram and killing a hundred people with machetes and hatchets doesn't sound "defeated."