Goma - Three people were killed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in a machete attack blamed on rebels from neighbouring Uganda, local authorities said Tuesday.
The attack, which was repelled by the army, took place in the restive North Kivu province, where rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces and National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU) have been accused of hacking scores of civilians to death since October.
The rebels launched their attack on the village of Eringeti, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the city of Beni, late Monday, tribal elder Desire Boroso told AFP.
“They killed three people Ä two women and a child - with a machete, and seriously injured three others,” Boroso said by telephone.
A local security source confirmed the death toll.
The mainly Muslim ADF-NALU rebels have been hiding in the mountains that straddle the border between DRC and Uganda since being driven out of their homeland in 1995.
The Congolese army and UN forces launched an offensive in January to try flush them out of the region.
Sapa-AFP