Africa, News - Monday, January 19, 2009 12:10 - 0 Comments

Kony rebels burn hundreds in church

Hundreds of civilians were on Saturday burnt to death in a church by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels. The rebels set ablaze a church called Bima in the Democratic Republic of Congo at midnight as the faithful prayed.

It is not yet known how many Christians were in the church at the time, according to Radio Okapi. In an indescribably savage manner, the rebels then attacked several homesteads, axing, cutting, slitting throats and crushing skulls with wooden bats and axes. The massacre occurred in the town of Tora and Libombi and two nearby mining communities located 130km from Dungu, the military base of operation lightning thunder.

According to the president of the civil society of Dungu, Felicien Balani: “The LRA entered around midnight. They surprised the faithful of the church who were in a prayer vigil. They burned them in the church,” said Balani. The rebels also burnt several houses at the gold mine town of Tora. So far recorded are five deaths and six injured. Civil society organizations working in Dungu said over 100 people had fled the area by yesterday. Continue…