At least 620 dead as LRA stalks northern Congo

By Joe Bavier

FARADJE, Congo (Reuters) - Honore Tadri, 20, was in Faradje on Christmas Day when about 150 armed men surrounded the market square where most of the Congolese town's residents had gathered for a festive concert.

The fighters, members of Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), waited for church services to end then slaughtered at least 143 people, crushing skulls with axes and wooden bats.

When night fell they set fire to about 940 houses to help them see during a looting spree that went on until they left at dawn, taking with them 160 children as sex slaves and soldiers.

Tadri hid during the initial attack but was captured in the morning and made to carry the pillaged contents of his neighbours' homes.

He was tied together with 12 others and told to march through the bush. When their pace lagged, they were forced to kill one of their group, a man he knew.

"He was older than the rest of us. They handed out whips ... We beat him to death. They forced us to do that," Tadri said.

The LRA has hacked, beaten to death or burnt alive at least 620 villagers in Democratic Republic of Congo amid a struggling multinational offensive against the rebel group, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Uganda's army, with the backing of Congolese and South Sudanese troops, launched assaults on LRA bases in northern Congo on December 14, aiming to crush the rebels and capture their leader, self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony.