At least 17 people were killed in 24 hours in attacks blamed on suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, local sources said on Wednesday (March 24th).
Read also: DRC: the armed group ADF killed 200 people and displaced 40,000 others this year according to the UN
The villages of Samboko, Tchani-Tchani and Kapoka were attacked Tuesday "
by ADF enemies
" who killed "
with knives twelve people
" and kidnapped an unknown number, told AFP Donat Kibwana, administrator. of the territory of Beni, in the province of North Kivu (East).
"
Ten hostages were recovered
" after an army counterattack, Mathe Kwirathwiwe, a civil society official from Samboko told AFP, reporting a death toll of "
15 dead. , including a soldier
”.
An ambush on Wednesday on the busy Kasindi road that leads to the Ugandan border resulted in a death toll of "
two vehicles burned
" and "
five deaths
": two drivers and their customers, Kambala Bashinde president of AFP told AFP. the Beni section of the Congo Drivers Association (ACCO).
The two vehicles that fell in the ambush were set on fire by the attackers, he added.
Questioned by AFP, the administrator of the territory of Beni confirmed the attack, attributing it to "
ADF attackers
".
In addition, in a statement released on its propaganda site, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for two attacks against “
two Congolese army posts
” in villages in the Rwenzori sector, in the south-eastern part of this region. same territory of Beni.
IS claims to have killed three Congolese soldiers there.
The Congolese army could not be reached immediately by AFP to react to this information.
The ADF are at the origin of the Ugandan Muslim rebels installed in the east of the DRC since 1995, opposed to the regime of Yoweri Museveni.
On March 11, the United States placed this armed group among the “
terrorist groups
” affiliated with ISIS.
They are accused of being responsible for the deaths of more than a thousand civilians since October 2014 in the region of Beni and its surroundings.
ADF fighters are currently considered the most violent among the hundreds of armed groups active in eastern DRC.
For several months, their attacks have affected the neighboring territories of Irumu and Mambasa, in the province of Ituri.
Since early 2021, more than 25 villages have been attacked and more than 200 people killed in Ituri and North Kivu, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).