Five aid workers killed in Congo

Rebels killed five Congolese aid workers and two other civilians in an attack in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a United Nations agency in the country said on Thursday.  

A statement said the attack blamed on Burundian rebels and a Congolese militia on Tuesday targeted a vehicle transporting members of a local educational group, Eben Ezer, at Fizi, in Sud-Kivu province.  

The UN's Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it was the deadliest attack on aid workers ever recorded in the country and had left colleague “very shocked”.  

“It strengthens the feeling of insecurity which has reigned for several months in humanitarian organizations in the east of the country,” where both local and foreign insurgent groups wage war on each other and the civilian population. 

 Those responsible were said to be members of the Mai Mai Yakutumba militia and allied rebels of Burundi's National Liberation Front.  

OCHA said that nearly 25 incidents involving aid workers had been recorded since August in Nord-Kivu province and 15 in neighboring Sud-Kivu, and nearly 140 all told so far this year. 

 “These incidents range from hold-ups to hostage-taking and the hijacking of humanitarian vehicles to transport military equipment,” it said.

-AFP