By BRYAN MEALER, Associated Press Writer Tue May 24, 7:01 PM ET
KINSHASA, Congo - Militiamen in eastern Congo killed at least 18 people and kidnapped at least 50 others in a late-night attack on a village, hacking their victims to death as they ran for safety, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.
Residents then reported seeing rebels severing the hands of their corpses.
The Rastas also wounded 11 people and kidnapped 50, disappearing into the lush, forest-covered mountains, according to Salmeron.
He said most residents who escaped fled to nearby Walungu, where a unit of U.N. peacekeepers are stationed.
No further details on the attack were immediately available. Ninja is 50 miles west of Bukavu, capital of south Kivu province.
Rastas are thought to be associated with some 10,000 Rwandan Hutu rebels still operating in eastern Congo. They fled into the dense forests after Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
While Hutu rebels are blamed for the killing of over 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the genocide, a majority of the rebels left in Congo are too young to have participated in the massacre, aid groups say.
However, they continue to prey on the local population.
Last week the United Nations reported Hutu rebels and Rastas had killed, raped and kidnapped about 900 people since June 2004.
In March, the Hutu rebels announced they would disarm and return to Rwanda, but no date has been set.
Neighboring Rwanda and Uganda have invaded Congo twice, in 1996 and 1998, under the auspices of driving out the rebels, who they feared were plotting another slaughter of Tutsis across the Rwandan border.
The 1998 invasion sparked a five-year war that sucked in six African armies and killed nearly 4 million people, mostly from war-induced sickness and hunger, aid groups say.
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