321 Killed in Congo Massacre

At least 321 Congolese villagers were hacked to death by fighters from the Lord’s Resistance Army, the BBC reports. It’s the worst massacre ever perpetrated by the rebel group, which says it’s fighting to create a Christian theocracy in Uganda but has spread its murderous rampage to Sudan, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Witnesses say the rebels, dressed in military uniforms and pretending to be Congolese soldiers, asked people in remote villages to carry food for them across a river and killed them with machetes if they refused. "As we marched, the LRA killed people—two at one village, three at the next and then four at the next," a witness who escaped told the BBC. "They wanted to kill me, but the leader said I should be kept alive, as they needed strong soldiers." At least 80 children were kidnapped, the males to be fighters and the females to be sex slaves.