ADF Rebels Kill Over 50 Civilians in Eastern DRC A...

ADF Rebels Kill Over 50 Civilians in Eastern DRC Attacks

Zim Now Writer

At least 52 civilians have been killed in a series of brutal raids by Allied Democratic Forces rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UN and local officials confirmed on Monday.

The attacks, carried out between August 9 and 16 in the Beni and Lubero territories, saw rebels armed with machetes and hoes storm villages and massacre residents.

Lieutenant Elongo Kyondwa Marx, a regional army spokesperson, said the killings were acts of revenge after recent defeats suffered by the group at the hands of Congolese forces.

Local officials described harrowing scenes. “When they arrived, they first woke the residents, gathered them in one place, tied them up with ropes, and then began to massacre them,” said Macaire Sivikunula, chief of Lubero’s Bapere sector.

Around 30 people were killed in the village of Melia alone, according to Lubero’s military administrator Alain Kiwewe.

Among the victims were women and children, and several homes were burned during the attacks.

MONUSCO, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the DRC, condemned the killings “in the strongest possible terms,” confirming that at least eight women and two children were among the dead.

The toll is expected to rise as searches continue in remote areas.

The ADF, an armed group originally from Uganda but now entrenched in eastern DRC, is one of several militias operating in the region, competing for land and the area’s vast mineral wealth.

Congolese and Ugandan forces have stepped up joint operations against the group in recent weeks, but civilians remain highly vulnerable to reprisal attacks.