Looting linked assassinations on rise in DR Congo’s Bukavu

08:55, May 25, 2011 par Xinua

Three people were reportedly killed on Monday by armed men in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).

Credible sources told Xinhua that the figure brought the number of slain people in the region to 10 in the past single week.

Witnesses said a driver working for the regional governor was killed on Sunday night, when he was driving back home in Bukavu’s Kasali residential area.

A day earlier in the Nkafu region, which is near Kasali residential area, armed men shot and killed a man rushing to rescue his neighbor being attacked by armed robbers.

In a separate attack on Monday at 3 a.m., armed men threw a hand grenade to a house in the Irambo residential area, also located in Bukavu. The owner of the house was instantly killed and his wife seriously injured.

The grenade attack provoked an immediate reaction from local residents, with a neighbor’s house set on fire in retaliation for his involvement in the assassination.

Asked about the increase in the number of deaths, South Kivu Governor Marcellin Chishambo refused to comment before receiving the results of a probe launched by the provincial criminal investigation department.

In less than a week, Xinhua was told, seven people were killed in Bukavu, including four in the Kadutu area, two in Bagira and another Ibanda.

The deaths were all linked to the looting of the victims’ property.

Source: Xinhua