Seven killed in new DR Congo raid

• In the neighbouring Ituri province, militiamen attacked a hospital at Biakato, which was serving as an Ebola treatment centre.
• The attackers were pushed back by UN peacekeepers and Congolese soldiers, sources said.

BUNIA: Seven people died in a fresh attack by the Mai-Mai militia on three police posts in the Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled east, where more than 60 people have been killed in violence this week.

Seven bodies were found and seven others were injured in the raids late Friday in Mamove in the volatile Beni region, The Centre for Studies to promote Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO) said Saturday.

It was not clear if the dead were civilians or policemen.

In the neighbouring Ituri province, militiamen attacked a hospital at Biakato, which was serving as an Ebola treatment centre.

The UN's Okapi radio said work at the centre had been suspended as a result.

"Two Mai-Mai militiamen were killed and a schoolgirl was injured by a bullet," Idriss Koma, the top local official told AFP.

The attackers were pushed back by UN peacekeepers and Congolese soldiers, sources said.

Last week, the Amkeni radio station in Biakato was burnt down, Journalists Without Borders (RSF) said.

Attacks on Ebola health workers and sites by armed groups and angry youths have paralysed work in the key zones of Beni, Biakato and Mangina.

The attacks led to a pullout of locally-employed Ebola workers in Biakato by the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

More than 2,200 people have died of Ebola since the latest outbreak in August.

The spate of massacres has become a major challenge for President Felix Tshisekedi, who took office about year ago.

In November, angry protests erupted in the city of Beni, an administrative hub, as citizens accused the UN peacekeeping force in DR Congo of failing to protect them.