At least 23 people, most of them women and children, have been hacked and shot to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations has said. The attack reportedly took place early Monday morning in the village of Kachele, some 100km from the regional capital Bunia, said Isabelle Abric, a spokeswoman for the MONUC force charged with keeping the peace in the capital of the Ituri region in the DRC. It is the first reported massacre since international peacekeepers began patrolling the troubled northeast Ituri region last month. The area was the scene of fierce fighting between the Lendu and Hema militias in July and August. Thousands of civilians fled the clashes. "Members of MONUC who went to the area saw 23 bodies, but according to other eyewitness accounts, 32 other bodies had already been buried," Abric said. Abric said the victims were "mostly children, pregnant women or older people killed with machetes or shot."
| They're so much easier to kill than men with guns... |
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