The Democratic Republic of Congo town of Oicha on Friday buried 27 victims of the latest massacre in the country's volatile east, with hundreds paying homage while lashing out at security forces for failing to stop attacks.
Mourners gathered in silence around the tiny morgue of Oicha, located near the Ugandan border and east of the DRC town of Beni, the scene of repeated deadly strikes.
Workers wore face masks as they wrapped the decomposing corpses in shrouds. They were barefoot in line with local tradition out of respect for the deceased.
Wooden crosses marked the graves and many wept as the bodies were lowered.
During the mass funerals, gunfire broke out from the nearby bush but it was unclear who was firing.
"My neighbour, who was my son's mother-in-law, had her throat slit and was then cut up," said Kahindo Kamabu, a woman in her fifties.
"I am very sad but I'm not crying anymore as I want to tell these murderers that we are strong and dignified despite our pain." Janvier Kasahirio, the head of a local youth association, said: "We found the remains of our brothers in pieces," adding that some of the victims had been burnt.
He said they found the bodies in the bush.
The victims were hacked to death with machetes on Wednesday, taking to 107 the number of people killed in and around Beni since November 5.
The vast majority of the killings have been carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia that has plagued the Democratic Republic of Congo's east since the 1990s.
"I recognised my aunt from her clothes," said Rosette Kashauri.
"Her face was barely recognisable. Her body was chopped up like the meat one sells in the market. I am sad and angry," she said.
The massacres have sparked protests against the local United Nations peacekeeping mission, known by its French acronym MONUSCO.
The mood in the town was similar on Friday.
"It's unthinkable that people kill the local population and that the young go to look for bodies while soldiers watch them," said Moise Kakule.
A general shutdown was meanwhile observed in Oicha as well as in Goma, the main city in DRC's east, in solidarity with the beleaguered residents of Beni and Oicha.
On Friday, the ADF released 12 hostages, including two women and some children, local residents said.
They said the released hostages carried back pamphlets exhorting locals to embrace Islam and stop cooperating with security forces.
AFP journalists could not consult the pamphlets. Some said they had paid ransom to the ADF to secure the release of relatives.
"My four children were kidnapped by the ADF," said 35-year-old Reagan Kimbu. "They were released against a payment of $4,500 (4,000 euros)." The UN refugee agency meanwhile said there was an exodus of locals from Oicha to Beni, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) away.
"Alarming reports from the region suggest people being trapped and under threat from the armed groups, with daily reports of loss of life," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday.
"Abductions and attacks on schools, health centres and indigenous communities are also on the rise," it said.
"Information is difficult to verify, as the movement of humanitarian workers is restricted due to insecurity around the city and in the territory of Beni, as a result of violence.
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