Crowds protested in the streets in Beni, eastern DR Congo, after rebels killed at least 11 people and abducted 15 others, including children, in an overnight raid, local officials said. The attack, thought to have been carried out by members of the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), targeted Beni, the regional army spokesman Captain Mak Hazukay told AFP.
Local people, carrying the bodies of three of the civilians killed in the attack, took to the streets following the attack, said Aloys Bwarara, the mayor of the district of Ruwezori. Other people, furious at the attack had set fire to the post office and a town hall, he added, "...which I deplore because we are doing everything to keep the population safe".
"We went down with three bodies as far as the town hall," said one local man, motorbike-taxi driver Paluku Thaiswika. "The police came to break it up because another group of young people had burnt down the post office and two annexes of the town hall," he added.
Law student Guillaume Saliboko said some local people had set up road blocks in the town's main street to make their anger known. "We can't understand how the ADF rebels can kill us in the middle of the town every time," he added. Police recovered the bodies of 11 civilians killed in the town of Matete north of Beni, Beni police chief Colonel Safari Kazingufu told AFP.