Seven suspected rebels killed in east DRC

Suspected Rwandan rebels killed seven people overnight in a region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that has been shaken by ethnic violence, local officials said on Monday.
Armed assailants torched 60 houses in Kibirizi and killed their victims with machetes or shot them dead, Deogratias Kitabingwa, the regional governor’s representative said.
He said the attack was carried out by Rwandan Hutu rebels who are members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
Five of the dead were from the local Nande tribe and two were Hutus, Kitabingwa said.
The attack came only hours after President Joseph Kabila left the region after a four-day stay.
Kibirizi is located 85 kilometres northwest of Goma, the main town of North Kivu province, which borders Uganda and Rwanda.
The province has been the scene of repeated clashes for nearly two decades, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.
The FDLR is a remnant of a military group comprising mainly ethnic Hutus opposed to Tutsi influence.
Set up in the eastern DRC after the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, the FDLR has been accused of committing frequent atrocities against civilians in areas under its control. Several of its chiefs face accusations of war crimes or crimes against humanity.