Congo rebel group kills at least 19 people in attack on eastern town

By JEAN-YVES KAMALE
Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — At least 19 people were killed when rebels attacked a town in Congo’s North Kivu province, the army said late Thursday, the latest violence in the country’s conflict-battered east. The rebels shelled the town of Mweso, where they “indiscriminately dropped mortar bombs,” which also injured 27 other civilians, the army said. The army blamed the attack on the M23 rebel group, which rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city on the border with Rwanda. U.N. experts warned last year that attacks by M23 fighters have become more frequent, longer and stronger, and that territory under the group’s control “significantly increased,” causing massive displacement of civilians and indiscriminate shelling.