Six killed as rebels hit army posts near Lake Edward

Goma, DR Congo | AFP |  At least three soldiers and three civilians have been killed in a rebel attack on the shores of Lake Edward in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive east, civilian and military sources said Friday.

“We have three dead (soldiers) and four wounded,” an army spokesman in the Ituri province told AFP, saying the situation was “getting worse” around fishing villages along the shores of the lake.

A local administrative official in Mahagi also said three civilians had been killed in what appeared to be the same area.

“Three civilians have died in this fishing spot and the wounded were taken to hospital,” Abel Ulingi told AFP, saying rebels had attacked army posts in three villages along the lake.

A civilian witness in Kwero, one of the villages which came under attack, reported seeing the bodies of four civilians and three rebels lying on the ground.

“We fled the clashes on Wednesday between rebels who came from Djugu territory and the army,” Pascal Agenonga told AFP.

“There were civilian bodies on the ground, I saw four yesterday morning,” he said, adding that he had also seen the corpses of three rebels.

The attack came as DR Congo gears up for presidential elections on December 23 to choose a successor to Joseph Kabila who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2001.

“We don’t know how we’re going to vote,” he said.

“Many people have fled and are afraid to come back.”

Hema herders and Lendu farmers have been locked in violence in Ituri for decades, with tens of thousands killed from 1999 to 2003.

A gold-rich province, Ituri has been mired in violence for decades, with farmers and herders from different ethnic groups locked a bitter war that left 60,000 dead between 1999 to 2003 and prompted the deployment of an EU peacekeeping force.