Lord’s Resistance Army rebels who have set up base in northern Congo hacked at Bertra Bamgbe’s face with a machete, cutting off half his left ear. Behind him is Kelele Annibetibe, who suffered a dozen stab wounds. Congolese villagers say Congo officials have failed to protect them in the face of a multination crackdown on the rebels. Edmund Sanders / Los Angeles Times
From The L.A. Times:
Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army have killed about 250 Congolese in a string of attacks after their camps were bombed in a joint campaign by Congo, Uganda and Sudan.
Reporting from Doruma, Congo -- The rebels targeted churches on Christmas Day.
Men were killed first, often stripped of shirts and pants, and then bound with their arms behind their backs. Rather than waste bullets, the attackers hacked victims in the back of the neck with machetes or shattered their skulls with sticks.
"It happened step by step," said Joseph Kpayajadia, 58, a farmer who hid in the grass and saw his son being killed. "They held everyone together in a group and then took people five or six at a time into the bush to kill. Then they came back for more."
By the time the rampage ended, 254 people were dead in nine villages in a string of attacks that lasted several days, officials in Doruma estimate.
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My Comment: One of Africa's most brutal war continues .... and there is no hope in sight.