Congo massacre

Renegade army soldiers in eastern Congo recently massacred at least 30 civilians, including women and children, to avenge the death of three of their troops, the UN mission in Congo said.

Troops slaughtered the civilians on December 17 in the village of Buramba because they suspected them of supporting Mayi Mayi militiamen in the area, the UN mission said in a statement yesterday.

“The mission says the exact number of civilians killed could be higher, given that the rebel government troops could have burned a certain amount of bodies and could have killed civilians in the hills overlooking Buramba,” said a spokeswoman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The massacre was apparently carried out in revenge for the earlier killings by Mayi Mayi militia of three soldiers who had tried to steal rice in Buramba.