BENI – Six people were killed and 24 others abducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s troubled east, local officials said yesterday after an attack blamed on the notorious Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia.
The violence happened here, in the North Kivu province, said territorial administrator Donat Kibwana.
Twenty-four civilians, including a reporter with a community radio station, were abducted in the course of the overnight attack, said sources.
ADF is blamed for slaughtering some 800 civilians over the past year in the province that borders Uganda.
The United Nations in July said the group’s attacks could constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The militia, which originated in the 1990s as an Ugandan Muslim rebel group, is one of more than 100 that plague the country’s eastern provinces.
The group makes money notably through wood trafficking, and DR Congo officials suspect that some military personnel are complicit in its violent raids.
ADF has never claimed responsibility for attacks. But since April last year, several of its assaults have been claimed by the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province, without providing proof. – AFP, December 13, 2020
