Two lynched, set on fire as ethnic tensions flare

Two Hutu women were dragged out of a minibus, lynched and their bodies set on fire by a crowd in eastern Congo, the local mayor said on Wednesday. This follows a surge in inter-ethnic tensions in the region in the wake of massacres that have killed many civilians. The crowd in the town of Butembo, […]

Two Hutu women were dragged out of a minibus, lynched and their bodies set on fire by a crowd in eastern Congo, the local mayor said on Wednesday.
This follows a surge in inter-ethnic tensions in the region in the wake of massacres that have killed many civilians.
The crowd in the town of Butembo, which is dominated by members of the Nande ethnic group, said the two ethnic Hutu women who were traveling by minibus in North Kivu province were militants, mayor Sikuli Uvasaka Makala told local radio.
Dozens have died in tit-for-tat killings by ethnic militia this year.
Ethnic rivalries, invasions by Rwanda and Uganda and competition for land and minerals among eastern Congo’s dozens of rebel groups have stoked conflict over the last two decades.