Four drown fleeing militia attack in DR Congo

BUNIA: Four people drowned while fleeing an attack by a militia group on a mining area in the violence-ridden northeast of DR Congo, local sources said Wednesday.

The victims died in the Ituri river attempting to escape the Mai-Mai Simba militia group in the mineral-rich Ituri province on Saturday, according to human rights group Convention for the Development of Forest Peoples and local official Idris Koma Kokodila.

Forty-six people were also believed to have been abducted by the militia and used to carry loads from the site, a remote area 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Bunia, a city near the troubled border with Uganda.