GOMA - The UN refugee agency – UNHCR, has confirmed growing concerns that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have continued killing, raping and displacing hundreds of civilians in eastern DRC.

Speaking over the phone from the DRC’s eastern provincial capital Goma, David Nthengwe, UNHCR Public Information Officer late Saturday confirmed that the FDLR attacked on April 17 and 18, targeting civilians.

"What actually happened is that on the seventeenth and eighteenth of April, there were attacks by the FDLR, and they targeted civilians – burned down over three hundred houses. A lot of people were displaced,” Nthengwe said.

MONUC’s military spokesman Lt. Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich on Friday had revealed that the latest rebel attacks occurred in a place called Luofu, in the Lubero territory, about 175 kilometers north of the provincial capital Goma.

"During the fire fights, many huts caught fire. Unfortunately, one family was not able to leave and they died. All seven people, including five small children,” said Dietrich.

FDLR is a French acronym for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an outfit accused by Rwanda of orchestrating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, are also accused by DRC of committing atrocities in theDRC for the last 15 years.

Luofu is located about 22 kilometers North West of Kanyabayonga where the UN mission in the DRC – MONUC, has a military base.

"That night we sent out some quick reaction force from Kanyabayonga but it took us about two hours to get there because the road is very difficult. We were trying to help the Congolese forces to stop the fire,” Dietrich said.

Apart from displacing hundreds in the past few weeks, other reports indicate that they have also been targeting humanitarian relief convoys, commercial traffic and, further still, have threatened to continue attacks.

"And now, some few days ago, I think it was on Wednesday (April 22) when we got this information. According to sources in Loufu, the FDLR issued another threat that they are coming to attack again,” Nthengwe said.

"This is worrying to the UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies. They (FDLR) are targeting civilians who are unarmed!”

Nthengwe is worried that the rebels will carry out their current threat since they had executed the earlier one.

"I am sure they are going to attack because, before the first attack, they had warned and then, a few days later (April 17-18), they attacked.”

• FDLR killing ways known

Nthengwe emphasized there is no doubt as to who is behind the attacks.

"People on the ground are very aware of the situation. They know how they (FDLR) operate, their style of operation – raping, burning houses, looting, and killing. That is their trademark – their modus operandi,” he said.

Subsequent to the end of the Rwanda-DRC joint military offensive against the rebel group in mid-February, FDLR stepped up reprisal attacks against civilians in North Kivu province.

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