Militants killed 20 people, most of them hacked to death, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) eastern Beni region in the latest attack by an armed group blamed for massacres that have sparked angry protests.
Local officials said that fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militia originally from neighboring Uganda, on Sunday attacked Apetina-Sana, west of Oicha, the chief administrative town in Beni region.
“There was an incursion in Apetina-Sana by the ADF last night,” Beni administrator Donat Kibwana said. “[They] hacked 18 civilians to death.”
Local officials later found two more bodies during a search after the attack, bringing the total to 20.
Apetina-Sana is part of the so-called Triangle of Death, along with Mbau and Eringeti — the worst-hit area for ADF attacks.
ADF fighters have killed more than 200 people since the army launched an offensive against them on Oct. 30 last year, tolls compiled by civil society groups showed.
The toll has sparked anger over the authorities’ response.
“The authorities were tipped off on Sunday evening about the presence of suspicious men west of Oicha,” said Teddy Kataliko, an activist in Beni. “We continue to ask the Congolese armed forces to launch operations on the western side as well, to save civilians.”
There have been demonstrations in the city of Beni, where local people accuse the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo of failing to protect them.
In a separate incident in the eastern DR Congo on Monday, “armed bandits” attacked a base used by a Chinese-owned gold mine, killing four people, the Congolese armed forces said.
The raid happened in Irumu District in the northeastern province of Ituri, Congolese Army Ituri Province spokesman Lieutenant Jules Ngongo said, adding that two soldiers, a police officer and a driver for the mine were killed.
“The assailants have not been completely identified, but they must be armed bandits who look for supplies during the year-end festivities,” Ngongo said.
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