A dozen civilians die in DR Congo rebel attack

BENI, Sept 23 (AFP): Sixteen people, including 12 civilians, were killed in a rebel attack on Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo's restive east on Sunday.

A doctor at the local hospital reported seeing 16 dead bodies, "including 12 civilians and four soldiers or rebels." Eight people were injured, of whom five civilians, in the attack late Saturday.

The Beni region is under siege from the Allied Defence Forces (ADF), an Islamist rebel group blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths over the past four years.

Foreign humanitarian workers have been stationed in Beni, in the north Kivu province near the border with Uganda, since early August to deal with a new Ebola outbreak in the region.