Congo: 32 die in clash between army and militia

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The Congolese army says that 32 were killed in fighting between soldiers and Mai Mai militiamen.

The rebels launched an assault early Wednesday on the town of Beni, 220 miles (350 kilometers) north of Goma.

Army spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said the assailants targeted a military center there. At least 24 militiamen were killed and three soldiers died including a lieutenant colonel.

He said five others who were awaiting transfer to a military training center also were killed.

Resident Jean Kambale said heavy gunfire had rocked the town since early Wednesday but that calm had returned by the afternoon.

Eastern Congo has been wracked by fighting since the end of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda and is home to a myriad of violent armed groups.

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Notorious Ivory Coast militia leader killed

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — A regional official says a notorious militia leader accused of enlisting child soldiers for cross-border raids from Liberia into western Ivory Coast was killed during fighting Saturday.

Claude Koffi Yao Kan, sub-prefect for the western town of Blolequin, said Sunday that Oulaï Tako, known as "Tarzan of the West," was among three assailants killed by soldiers responding to the attack. Ivory Coast's United Nations mission says two civilians and a traditional hunter were also killed in the attack on a village 15 miles (25 kilometers) outside Blolequin.

A report last year from Human Rights Watch implicated Tako in a series of raids on villages in western Ivory Coast dating back to July 2011, with witnesses saying he had been involved in the recruitment and training of child soldiers.

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