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KINSHASA Six bodies were found with stab wounds and bullet holes in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, killed by suspected Ugandan Islamist rebels, local and military sources said on Thursday.
The Centre of Study for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO), a local activist group, said the bodies were found in the village of Kamakombu, more than 30 kilometres (19 miles) northeast of the territorial capital of Beni.
CEPADHO said in a statement it believes the victims were killed by fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist group founded in Uganda that has operated primarily on the Congolese side of the border for the last two decades and is active in the illicit trade of minerals and timber.
A commander of Congolese army operations against the ADF, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the death toll and presumed ADF involvement, adding that the bodies were heavily decomposed.
Local activists say that more than 500 people have been killed in overnight massacres in the Beni area since last October, mostly in attacks with machetes and hatchets.
Though the government and U.N. mission in Congo have blamed most of the deaths on the ADF, a U.N. panel of experts said in a report released this week that many of the killings it had investigated did not appear consistent with known ADF attacks.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross and Kenny Katombe; Editing by Tom Heneghan)