KIVU, DR Congo
Two drunken Congolese soldiers have gunned down a total of 15 people in separate attacks in volatile eastern DR Congo, authorities said Monday.
One "inebriated"
soldier killed eight passengers and wounded seven on Monday aboard a boat on
Lake Tanganyika, South-Kivu province's Fizi territory administrator Aime Kawaya
Mutipula told AFP.
"Among the victims, all
of them civilians, are men, women and children," he said.
Local army spokesman Marc
Elongo said the soldier, Lukusa Kabamba, was then "lynched" by angry
residents before he could be arrested and died from his injuries.
Local civil society group
coordinator Andre Byadunia had earlier said the soldier had been "locked
up" and urged "the authorities to put him on trial and sentence
him".
On Sunday, another soldier
shot dead the bodyguard of a colonel before killing the colonel and five
civilians at Bambu, in Djugu territory, the local authorities announced in
Ituri province.
The village "woke up
Sunday morning to shooting and thought it was an attack", said local
official Claude Mateso.
But, he explained, it was a
soldier who had been disarmed by his colleagues the previous evening because he
was drunk.
The killer, who had recovered
his gun, was eventually shot dead by another soldier who gave chase.
"It's an isolated case
and we strongly condemn it," said Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, army spokesman
for Ituri.
"We are waiting to learn
the real reasons behind this irresponsible and criminal act," he added.
Meanwhile in neighbouring
North-Kivu, six people were wounded by a grenade thrown into a crowd by
soldiers trying to arrest a young man in Kisovu village, in Masisi territory,
said local administrative secretary Ngendahimana Eugene Gishoma.
All three provinces in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been wracked by violence linked to
numerous armed groups for the last 25 years.
The government has put Ituri
and North-Kivu under a "state of siege" since last May, but security
forces have failed to restore peace. - AFP
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