Congolese troops kill at least seven: Army

At least seven civilians were shot dead in an action attributed to Congolese soldiers in Mangina, a town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, sources including an army spokesperson said Tuesday.

“Among the population, unfortunately, we counted seven fatalities,” said Lieutenant Antony Mwalushayi, army spokesperson in North Kivu province, as he visited the zone after Monday’s violence.

He told reporters “several undisciplined people on our side fired bullets into the city” causing people to flee, adding three soldiers also died in a skirmish with local militia.

Mwalushayi also said an army officer “gave the immediate order that six soldiers responsible for the shooting be arrested,” pledging that they “will answer for their actions.”

Local civil society leader Kakule Vunyatsi deplored the civilian deaths which he blamed on “the barbarity of out of control soldiers.”

Video shared on social media showed heavily armed soldiers and police officers handling around a dozen bodies.

As they loaded the bodies into vehicles some soldiers and police were heard to congratulate each other and quip that the operation was like something “out of a film”.

Colonel Charles Ehuta Omeanga, administrator of the territory of Beni, the area where Mangina is located, went to the scene to ask that local people who had fled return because “the army is there to secure (the area for) them.”

He added army commanders had been dispatched to the town to hand over soldiers involved in the shooting to local prosecutors for a judicial investigation.

In September, a Republican Guard colonel in the DRC was sentenced to death and three other soldiers to ten years in prison over the violent repression of an August 30 demonstration which authorities say left at least 57 dead in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.