DRC: New massacre near Beni, fifteen dead

Fifteen civilians were killed and beheaded in a new massacre near Beni in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, civil society sources said Friday.

The new killings attributed to the armed group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) took place Thursday north of Beni in the Mbau area.

« Sixteen decapitated bodies have been found after searches started in the evening, » Jamal Moussa, a spokesperson for Mbau’s network of civil society organizations, told AFP.

Two passengers on a motorbike threw a machine that exploded on a market that left two people seriously injured and one injured

The massacre targeted the village or hamlet of Mantumbi: « ADF terrorists attacked in broad daylight, first in the bush where people were in their fields and then in the village. »

No military source has officially confirmed the information at this stage.

The Congolese army and peacekeepers have announced joint « actions » and « operations » in the region against the armed groups, starting with the ADF.

Meanwhile, three people were wounded by an explosive device on Thursday night in Beni-ville, said a local official, a new mode of operation in this region in the grip of multiple violence.

« Two passengers on a motorbike threw a machine that exploded on a market with two serious injuries and a slight injury, » said Alois Mbwarara, Bourgmestre of Rwenzori, one of the four communes of the city.

« The ADF, in disarray against the Congolese army, now use their collaborators in the city for sabotage actions, » he said.

« The army is analyzing the debris to determine whether it is a homemade bomb or a grenade, » he said, adding that the last bomb attack in Beni was in 2007.

The army announced Wednesday to have discovered in a camp taken over from the ADF « a large-scale manufacturing plant of homemade bombs », according to General Leon Richard Kasonga, spokesman for the Congolese army.

In total, more than 100 civilians have been killed since 5 November in attacks attributed to the ADF group.

According to experts, these massacres target civilians in retaliation for the military operations announced at the end of October by the Congolese army against the ADF bases.