20100328
PRESS TV

Shocking evidence of an undisclosed massacre of at least 321 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo last December has just been surfaced.

The massacre, discovered Sunday, took place when insurgents from the infamous Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of Uganda attacked several villages, including Mabanga Ya Talo, in a remote part of north-eastern Congo, BBC reported.

According to the report, the rebels came to the Mabanga Ya Talo village on December 13 while pretending to be Congolese soldiers who had spent months on duty in the forests.

The rebels first asked the villagers to provide them with food and other goods, but eventually caught them off guard and killed scores of them in a brutal attack.

After raiding their homes, the fighters kidnapped some 250 people to carry looted goods and abducted more than 80 children from the village to become sex slaves and fighters.

This pattern was reportedly repeated in villages all the way to Tapili, some 45km (30 miles) away.

One abductee, 17-year-old Jean-Claude Singbatile, said he spent days carrying bags of salt after being captured with a group of friends.

"As we marched, the LRA killed people - two at one village, three at the next and then four at the next," he told the BBC.

"They wanted to kill me, but the leader said I should be kept alive, as they needed strong soldiers."

He said he eventually made a run for it after one of the rebel leaders warned that he would also be killed and should take his chance to flee.

"He warned me because he is an Azande, like me," said Jean-Claude, referring to his ethnic group.

Human Rights Watch has verified 321 deaths while other activists have given far higher estimates.

The incident has been described as “one of the worst massacres” carried out by the LRA, which was alledgedly established to install a theocracy in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.