he violence in the troubled North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo took an ugly turn after the bodies of 17 civilians were found in Lake Edward, a local official said Tuesday.
According to Joy Bekele, an official in the Lubero region, the civilians “drowned trying to flee clashes between the Mai-Mai and soldiers from the Congolese armed forces.”
The Mai-Mai – a self-described “self-defence” militia group – have been engaged since Sunday in “violent clashes” against Congolese soldiers in the lakeside village of Kyavinyonge, with at least seven people killed, army spokesman Jules Tshikudi said.Justin Kyamakya, a native of the district who spoke to AFP, said the civilians could have been onboard a dingy that capsized on Lake Edward.
“The dingy that capsized held between 28 and 30 passengers, most of them women and children,” said 28-year-old Kyamakya, who reportedly got off the boat because it was overcrowded.
The Mai-Mai first emerged as community self-defence groups formed on a mainly ethnic basic, and have been terrorising the region since the Second Congo War (1998-2003).
The mineral-rich east of the DRC has been unstable 20 years,with the international community blaming several dozen local and foreign armed groups for serious rights abuses against civilians, such as rape, killings and abductions.
Fighting between these groups and the Congolese army has intensified since the beginning of the year in North Kivu and the neighbouring province of South Kivu.
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