File Photo: A woman reacts after five other women were killed in Paida, near Beni, North Kivu Province of Democratic Republic of Congo, December 7, 2018. Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
Beni, DR Congo: Ten people were killed overnight Sunday in eastern DR Congo, where massacres of civilians carried out by a rebel group have sparked protests against UN peacekeepers, local officials said.
Ten civilians were killed in the village of Kamango, a day after 22 were murdered in Ntombi, Donat Kibuana, administrator for the territory of Beni, told AFP on Monday.
"The 22 who were killed in Ntombi had not even been buried when other civilians were killed, in Kamango," he said.
"Ten bodies have been brought to the morgue so far."
Pascal Saambili, a traditional leader in Watalinga district, blamed the latest attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia accused of hundreds of civilian deaths.
"The ADF burst into Kamango at nightfall. They killed civilians with machetes and guns. So far, we have recovered 10 bodies. There are also nine injured."
"The people are in disarray."
Faustin Basweki, who heads an association for young people in Kamango, said he witnessed the massacre.
"When troops arrived, the terrorists gave the order to pull out and leave Kamango, speaking in Kiganda," a language spoken in nearby Uganda, whose border lies 15 kilometres (nine miles) away, he said.
Leila Zerrougui, head of MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission in the central African country, said in a statement: "These barbarian attacks are orchestrated in order to break people's confidence and to discredit" both MONUSCO and Congolese troops who launched operations against the ADF in late October.
"MONUSCO is working to identify the risks and the people within communities that allow these massacres to go forward," she said, adding that the work was in "close coordination" with Congolese security forces.
The ADF -- a militia whose historical roots lie in Uganda and jihadism -- has been active in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since the Congo Wars of the 1990s.
The group has killed more than 1,000 civilians since October 2014, according to the not-for-profit Congo Research Group (CRG).
In response to the army offensive, the ADF has killed scores of civilians in an apparent bid to discourage the public from helping the military.
The massacres have unleashed a wave of anger, especially in the city of Beni, where local people have accused MONUSCO of failing to protect them.
The UN force has pointed out that anti-ADF operations were launched by government forces, and has insisted it is trying to find ways to keep the population safe.
