Several hundred Congolese soldiers went on the rampage in the relatively stable west of the country on Sunday, beating up civilians and looting homes after finding a colleague hacked to death, officials told Reuters. The soldiers were former members of the People's Armed Forces of Congo (FAPC), one of many rebel factions meant to have been integrated into Democratic Republic of Congo's new military after a 5-year civil war officially ended in 2003. "There are several hundred of these soldiers. When they found their colleague dead, they broke into the armoury, stole the weapons and started pillaging," Albert Donatien Bekalola, mayor of the town of Mbandaka, told Reuters by telephone. "The regional military commander has deployed soldiers to push them back but the situation is still tense," he said. Mbandaka lies on the Congo river, around 600 km (370 miles) northeast of Kinshasa, in a region which has largely escaped the fighting that has rumbled on in other areas since the wider war was declared over. Kemal Saiki, spokesman for the United Nations mission in Congo, said the soldiers had gone out shooting in the streets, beating people up and looting houses after finding one of their colleagues hacked to death. There was no word on casualties. --More 2317 Local Time 2017 GMT
