Militias Committing Atrocities, U.N. Reports

Militiamen in eastern Congo have kidnapped hundreds of civilians from rival ethnic groups, decapitating some, torturing others and forcing the rest to work as porters or sex slaves, the U.N. said in a report based on testimony from survivors.

“Vital organs were said to have been cut off and used as magic charms.... Children were thrown onto arrows stuck into the ground,” it said.

Eastern Congo is suffering the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis, with a death toll outstripping that of Sudan’s Darfur region, the U.N. said.