Mick Hartley

Last year we heard reports of the Christmas Massacres carried out by the Lord's Resistance Army in its new base in the north-eastern Congo. Now the BBC reports on what seems to be almost an exact repeat a year later:

Evidence of the massacre of at least 321 people in Democratic Republic of Congo has been uncovered by the BBC.

The killings took place last December but have not previously been reported.

Fighters from the notorious Lord's Resistance Army raided several villages in a remote part of north-eastern DR Congo, killing and abducting children.

Human Rights Watch says this is one of the worst massacres carried out by the LRA, whose fighters roam across several countries after spreading from Uganda. The rebel leaders initially claimed to be fighting to install a theocracy in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments, but they now sow terror in Sudan and Central African Republic, as well as DR Congo.

In the latest attack, the rebels hacked to death villagers and made others carry looted goods. Some 250 people were abducted.

An LRA spokesman has denied the charges, but no one's convinced.

For some background on the complex and brutal history of the Lord's Resistance Army, Wikipedia is probably a good place to start.