KAMPALA More than 240 people have been killed in a violent witch hunt around the town of Aru in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the past two weeks, the Ugandan military said Saturday.

The Lynchings appear to have started when a rumor spread in the border area that witches possessed by evil spirits were casting spells on people, the army commander in charge of northern Uganda Brigadier Henry Tumukunde told AFP.

Ugandan troops are deployed in the DRC to back rebels who have waged war on the government in the former Zaire since 1998.