Children 'bashed against walls' in DR Congo massacre, government says

At least 22 people, most of them women and children, have been hacked and clubbed to death in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, just days after a similar massacre took place, a government official said.

The attack on Friday evening in the town of Eringeti, in North Kivu, left 10 women, eight children and four men dead, a local government official told Agence France-Presse news agency.



"Most of the victims were killed with machetes, axes and hoes," the nongovernmental group Civil Society of North Kivu said in a statement. 



Several children had their heads "bashed against the walls" it said, blaming the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group, that has menaced the area for much of the last two decades.



The latest attacks took the total number of people killed in last 10 days to over 80.

The attack occurred some 31 miles from the town of Beni, where at least 26 people were slaughtered with machetes on Thursday, raising doubts about government claims that the Ugandans had been defeated.

Congolese troops and U.N. peacekeepers launched a major offensive in January against the ADF, which is accused of widespread rights abuses including murder, rape and use of child soldiers. It funds its activities by trafficking timber and gold.

Amisi Kalonda, government administrator for the Beni area, said he was heading to Eringeti along with an army contingent but was so far unable to say if the rebel ADF, who have bases in the DR Congo, were to blame.

Radio Okapi, a United Nations-run radio channel based in Kinshasa, reported that the bodies of those killed on Thursday were laid to rest on Friday.

To show their solidarity with the victims of Beni, national deputies observed a minute of silence during the plenary on Friday in the DRC capital, Kinshasa.



The Civil Society of North Kivu group said at least 79 people had been "savagely executed by the ADF" in the past fortnight, calling on the U.N. force in the country to contribute troops to help the army confront the rebels.

Al Jazeera and wire services