Mob attacks surge in rebel-held east Congo city Bukavu

(Reuters) - At least 11 people were killed in attacks over the past day in the rebel-held Democratic Republic of Congo city of Bukavu as vigilante violence rises following the army's withdrawal, witnesses and a civil society activist said on Thursday.

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are trying to demonstrate they can restore order in the city and other localities they control in eastern Congo as they work to set up their own administration.

That effort has included retraining hundreds of Congolese police officers to work under M23's authority.

Bukavu-based human rights activist Amos Bisimwa said residents were taking justice into their own hands partly because the city's police force has not stepped in.

"We were told that a police force had been sent for ideological training... We want to see this police force return to Bukavu so that it can continue to maintain public order and, above all, intervene in cases of mob justice," he said.

His organisation, the Observatory of Parliamentary and Governmental Actions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, recorded 11 deaths from vigilante attacks on Wednesday and Thursday.

Those killed have been accused of offences including theft, armed robbery and witchcraft.

In some cases the burnt bodies of victims have been left in the streets, drawing crowds.

Moke Mwayuma, whose brother was burnt alive after being accused of theft, deplored his death and said he was innocent.

"He is not a thief. What is his crime? We don't know. We found the fire over there, and he was burning in it," she said.

The M23-appointed vice governor of South Kivu province, Dunia Masumbuko Bwenge, said there had been "several cases" of vigilante attacks "driven by the behavior of a population that feels threatened by these criminals - these thieves who kill, steal, and also commit sexual violence."

M23 advanced into central Bukavu on February 16 after the army withdrew.

The M23 advance is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in eastern Congo, rooted in the spillover of Rwanda's 1994 genocide into Congo and the struggle for control of Congo's vast mineral resources.

Rwanda rejects allegations by Congo, the United Nations and Western powers that it supports M23 with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.

(Reporting by Congo newsroom; Writing by Ayen Deng Bior; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Angus MacSwan)