Congo rights group: Army kills 12 rebels after Beni attacks

Congo's army fought off attacks in and around the eastern city of Beni today, killing at least 12 assailants and capturing seven, a local human rights group said.
Two soldiers also were killed in the fighting and several people were wounded, including students taking exams, said Omar Kavota, executive director of the Center for Studies of Peace and Defense of Human Rights.
Kavota blamed a new rebel coalition for the bombing of a school and attempted attacks on a women's prison, a police station and the town hall.
The death toll could rise as Congo's military pursues other attackers, he said.

Beni Mayor Nyonyi Bwanakawa blamed the attack on Mai Mai rebels. Kavota, however, warned that a new rebel coalition has formed outside Beni after armed men on June 11 attacked the city's central Kangbayi prison, killing at least 11 and freeing 900 prisoners.
The new coalition, which Kavota called the National Revolutionaries Movement, is likely composed of rebels from the Mai Mai, Allied Democratic Forces and former M23 members who escaped prison.

Kavota said the new coalition may have external political and military support, given the logistics of the attacks, and he called on the government and military to quickly dismantle the group.

Kavota, whose organisation tracks civilian deaths in the region, also called on the military to increase protection of civilians and public places.
Eastern Congo is home to multiple armed groups that compete for control of the region's vast mineral resources.