Hutu militia kills 13 in restive DR Congo

Thirteen members of the ethnic Nande community were killed Thursday in an attack on a village by Hutu militiamen in the troubled east of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), authorities said.

The militia “killed 13 people, using machetes or guns… all the victims are Nande,” Alphonse Mahano, a local official, told AFP.

The bloodshed happened in the village of Bwalanda, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the provincial capital of Goma.

Tension between the Nande and Hutu peoples have been high in the restive east of DRC, shaken by two decades of fighting over land, ethnic tensions and mineral riches.

On November 27, Nande militia killed at least 34 civilians in the Hutu village of Luhanga, according to local authorities.

The Nande accuse Congolese Hutus of abetting the FDLR Rwandan rebel group. The Hutus, in return, say they are looking for land where they can settle for farming and accuse the Nande of trying to expel them.