Africa

Africa

15 killed in fresh violence in DR Congo

28 February 2018 01:29 (UTC +04:00)

Fifteen people have been killed in a resurgence of violence in DR Congo's troubled Kasai region blamed on a suspected militia, a local leader said Tuesday, APA reports quoting Press TV

"Kamwina Nsapu militiamen arrived in the administrative center of Lombelu (on Monday) and made a surprise attack on an army combat patrol," Andre Kapiola, Lombelu sector chief in Kasai Central, told AFP.

"We have collected the bodies of 14 militiamen," Kapiola said, adding that one soldier was also killed.

However several Lombelu residents told AFP that about half of those killed in the attack would have been "ordinary citizens".

Violence in the vast Kasai region first erupted after a tribal chieftain known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against the regime of President Joseph Kabila, was killed in August 2016.

Kapiola said the situation was "under control" but that the population of the village, which is 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the major regional town of Kananga, had fled into the bush.