At least 12 people were killed in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the weekend in attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group with links to the Islamic State (IS), local authorities said.
“Three people were killed in Mabunda and nine others in Bandulu, in the Bapere sector, within the Lubero territory of the Congolese province of North Kivu,” the head of that sector, Macaire Sivikunulya, told Actualité, a local media outlet.
While some civilians managed to escape the attacks, four people are seriously injured in hospital and a woman, who was raped and injured, is in a local health center, added Samuel Kagheni, the president of the Bapere civil society.
The first attack targeted the village of Mabunda on Saturday and the second took place hours later in the village of Bandulu, Sivikunulya said.
"Some of the victims were killed when their homes were set on fire, while others were herded into the village and then beheaded," explained the head of the Bapere sector, where violence has intensified in recent months.
In the past two weeks, around 90 civilians have been killed in North Kivu province by the ADF.
The ADF is a Ugandan militia, but is currently based in the neighbouring Congolese provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, where it carries out frequent attacks and keeps the population in terror since it stepped up attacks on civilians.
The group's objectives are not yet clear, apart from a possible link to the Islamic State, which sometimes claims responsibility for its actions.
The Ugandan authorities also accuse the group of organising attacks on their territory, and in November 2021, the armies of Uganda and the DR Congo, which borders Angola, began an ongoing joint military operation to combat the rebels.
Although UN Security Council experts have found no evidence of direct support from ISIS to the ADF, the United States has identified the ADF as a "terrorist organization" affiliated with the terrorist group since March 2021.
Since 1998, eastern DR Congo has been mired in a conflict fueled by more than a hundred rebel groups and the army, despite the presence of the UN mission in the country.
