DR Congo: 38 dead in attacks on civilians in Beni

Thirty-eight people were killed Thursday night in Beni, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a new report on attacks in at least three villages attributed to rebels of the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces. ADF), became known today from converging sources.

The Kivu Security Tracker (KST) said in a statement that five people had been killed in the attack on a hospital in Kishunga.

The local section of the Red Crescent also spoke of a total of 38 dead.

“Most of the bodies were found with their hands tied and their necks cut with machetes,” Sami Caleverua, head of the Red Crescent, told AFP.

“At the moment it is difficult to have the exact number of men and women killed because we have not yet completed the search for bodies in the forests,” he added.

These deaths add to “at least 1,137 civilians killed in North Kivu and Ituri since the siege began on May 6,” according to KST.

On May 6, Congolese President Felix Chisekendi declared a state of “siege” in the eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu to implement measures to reduce violence, particularly ADF attacks. Army officers replaced the political governors of the two provinces.

The ADF, which swears allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), was founded by Muslim Ugandan insurgents who settled in the area in 1995. The group has been accused of atrocities against civilians it accuses of collaborating with the military operations against it. It is considered the most ruthless of the 122 armed groups recorded operating in the eastern part of the DRC.

Last March, the United States listed the ADF as a “terrorist organization” linked to Islamic State jihadists.

Source: AMPE