Most of those slain were Hutus, and local officials said an ethnic Nande militia was behind the killings, which are the latest in a year-long cycle of violence between the two ethnic communities DRC’s North Kivu province.
JOY BOKELE, a territorial administrator in North Kivu, said militants first attacked a DRC military post before the assault on Luhangabegan.
Ethnic rivalries, foreign invasions and competition for mineral-rich land have stoked persistent conflict among eastern Congo’s dozens of rebel groups over the last two decades, costing millions of lives.
Tensions have spiked between the Hutu and neighboring communities since Congo’s army launched a 2015 military offensive against the FDLR, displacing large numbers of fighters and Hutu civilians.
