Ten civilians were killed on Tuesday night in an attack attributed to the Ugandan Alliance of Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia sixty kilometers north of Beni in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local sources said Wednesday. .
« The ADF made incursion around 8:00 pm (18:00 GMT) in the locality of Kokola. They killed ten civilians, some by stabbing and others with firearms, « Donat Kibwana, administrator of the Beni territory, told AFP.
The regular army announced last week operations of « scope » in the region of Beni, scene of massacres of civilians for five years and an outbreak of Ebola declared on August 1, 2018.
« The ADF are stuck by the fire of the Congolese army. This is how they seek to spread terror among the population, « AFP spokesman Maj Mak Hazukay told AFP.
« We continue our work. However we deplore what happened to our compatriots in Kokola, « he added, refusing to comment on the human toll of the militia attack.
Two civil society leaders regretted that the military operations are concentrated around the city of Beni, which also houses a base of the United Nations Mission in Congo (Monusco).
« Why are military operations concentrated only around the city of Beni? However, it is the agglomerations of the territory that are much more targeted by the ADF, « said the president of the civil society, Noella Katongerwaki.
Scheduled withdrawal from Monusco
« We welcome the launch of military operations but we ask that this be done on three axes: center, south and north, » added his colleague Teddy Kataliko.
« These operations were launched only in the center, around Beni city, and we have the impression that we leave a corridor to the north where we observed the movements of the ADF from east to west to escape « He said.
Historically Ugandan rebels struggling against President Yoweri Museveni, the ADF retreated to eastern DRC in the 1990s.
ISIS has claimed some of their latest attacks since the beginning of the year, but there is no compelling evidence of ADF affiliation to the « Islamic State – Central African Province ».
A UN report proposes a three-year withdrawal of some 16,000 peacekeepers deployed in the DRC. The Security Council must extend the mandate of MONUSCO in the coming days.
Monusco « will continue to protect Congolese settlements and the Congolese population, but, at the request of the Congolese armed forces, it will be able to provide support of various kinds, » Army spokesman General Léon Kasonga said at the launch. operations in the Beni region.
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