Africa-Press – Rwanda. Members of the Islamic State-linked ADF militia in eastern DR Congo allegedly killed 40 civilians in North Kivu province in what locals called a “double attack,” local media reported on Saturday, August 16.
Residents of Bapere sector of Lubero territory and local civil society said the toll from the two attacks on Thursday and Friday could be higher.
“There are deaths and missing persons. The security services are still working in the area, pursuing the attackers. We will get back to you with the final report soon,” Bapere sector chief Macaire Sivikunulwa was quoted as saying in a telephone interview with local publication 7SUR7.
Samuel Kagheni, president of the Bapere civil society, said the death toll was higher than 40, adding that the attacks affected multiple villages.
“In the village of Emelia, the ADF executed 32 people. In Ekenge, four other people lost their lives. Far away in Mutaweza, six civilians perished,” Kagheni told the publication.
“We ask the competent authorities to see how to put an end to this barbarity that is causing mourning in the Bapere sector. We also call on the government to support the security forces in this area with men and ammunition so that the ADF phenomenon ends there,” he said.
The civil society representative suggested that some members of Wazalendo, a group of armed groups who fight alongside the DR Congo armed forces, were involved in the attacks.
The UN-sanctioned ADF is one of the most notorious militias in DR Congo’s conflict-ridden eastern region. Based in Ituri province, the group originates from Uganda and has been active for nearly three decades.
In another attack in late July, the ADF killed at least 47 civilians in a church in Ituri. The attack caused outrage from local and international communities, with the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo, calling for peace and describing the victims as “martyrs.”
An attack on a Ugandan school by the Islamist militia killed at least 40 children in June 2023.
After an agreement with DR Congo, Uganda deployed troops to Ituri in 2021, under Operation Shujaa, to hunt down the militia. The operation is still ongoing.
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