Soldier and wife hanged

Beni – A crowd in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday lynched two people they suspected of being members of a militia blamed for the killing of more than 100 civilians over the past month, an AFP journalist said.

The army said the pair were a sergeant and his wife. The killings came on the same day that the UN peacekeeping chief visited eastern DRC where anti-UN protests have erupted.

Munitions were found in the bags of the two people, a man and a woman dressed in civilian clothes, in the town of Beni. The crowd of several dozen people accused them of being members of the Allied Democratic Forces, a shadowy armed group with links to Ugandan Islamists.

“They didn’t have ID and when we checked their bags we found ammunition, military garb and cartridge clips,” said Fabrice Muhindo, who works at the car park where the lynchings took place. “They are ADF members who were on their way to an operation against the population. We neutralised them,” he said.

The two were actually an army sergeant and his wife, the army said late on Saturday. Sergeant Bahati Sisimbume was heading to his duty station in Ituri province, north of Beni, army spokesperson Mak Hazukai said.