{"id":242292,"date":"2020-08-01T08:15:19","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T07:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=242292"},"modified":"2020-08-01T08:15:37","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T07:15:37","slug":"drunken-soldier-shoots-dead-13-civilians-including-2-year-old-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=242292","title":{"rendered":"Drunken soldier shoots dead 13 civilians, including 2-year-old girl"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Web Image for illustration only.<\/strong> Not associated with the story.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A drunken soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s (DR Congo) troubled east opened fire on passers-by, killing at least 13 people including a two-year-old girl and seven women, sources said on Friday.<\/p>\n

The murders incensed locals who laid out the victims\u2019 shrouded bodies.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Youths built a big fire nearby and a local leader vilified the army and demanded that its troops and a UN force stationed in the district pull out.<\/p>\n

Shocked relatives of the victims drifted around as they tried to make sense of the tragedy.<\/p>\n

The incident happened late Thursday at Sange, in the territory of Uvira in South Kivu province, the sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe person responsible is a drunken member of the FARDC (DR Congo armed forces) who opened fire on at least 20 civilians who crossed his path,\u201d a prosecutor in Uvira said.<\/p>\n

Captain Dieudonne Kasereka, an army spokesman, said the soldier was \u201cin a state of drunkenness and shot 13 people who died, and wounded nine others\u201d.<\/p>\n

The gunman was still armed and on the run, Kasereka added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn army delegation and a UN team is in the area to calm the population, which is demonstrating against the army,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Angry residents blocked Highway 5 which runs through the area, using branches, rocks and burning tyres.<\/p>\n

They also displayed the 12 bodies, wrapped in funeral shrouds, at a busy crossroads, blocking traffic, several witnesses told AFP, but removed them later following talks between district representatives and civilian and military officials.<\/p>\n

Ndaburwa Rukalisa, a local leader in Sange, said the soldier was a member of the locally based 122nd Battalion of the FARDC.<\/p>\n

A judicial source said that a two-year-old girl was among those who were shot dead.<\/p>\n

Local leader Bernard Kadodo said \u201cwe can\u2019t understand the lax attitude of the army and (UN) Blue Helmets in Sange.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe battalion has to pull out of Sange quickly. We want the UN mission to leave the city too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sange lies 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province.<\/p>\n

The highway connects Uvira, the province\u2019s second-largest town, with the border with Burundi.<\/p>\n

It has been rocked by unrest for around 25 years and has recently seen an increase in ethnic violence.<\/p>\n

In July 2010, an overturned tanker truck carrying petrol exploded in the city, killing almost 300 people.<\/p>\n

[AFP]<\/p>\n

Vanguard News Nigeria.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Web Image for illustration only. Not associated with the story. A drunken soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s (DR Congo) troubled east opened fire on passers-by, killing at least 13 people including a two-year-old girl and seven women, sources said on Friday. The murders incensed locals who laid out the victims\u2019 shrouded bodies. Youths […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3773,3],"tags":[5115,14674],"class_list":["post-242292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-news","tag-army","tag-drc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/242293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}