Rebels kill at least 52 civilians in east DR Congo: UN
Rebel fighters have killed at least 52 civilians in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent days, the UN peacekeeping mission in the country said on Monday.
Attacks from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) targeted several villages in the North Kivu province between August 9 and 16, the mission, called MONUSCO, said, warning that the toll could go up.
After a relative lull in recent months, ADF rebels massacred more than 40 people in a church at the end of July in Komanda, a town in neighbouring Ituri province.
The renewed violence comes as a separate conflict between the DRC and the Rwandan-backed M23 group continues to simmer in the east of the country despite a series of peace treaties signed in recent months.
The latest ADF "violence was accompanied by kidnappings, looting, the burning of houses, vehicles, and motorcycles, as well as the destruction of property belonging to populations already facing a precarious humanitarian situation," MONUSCO said.
The ADF, an armed group originally formed by former Ugandan rebels, has killed thousands of civilians and increased looting and killings in northeastern DRC, despite the deployment of the Ugandan army alongside Congolese armed forces.
Among the 52 victims so far this month, at least nine were killed overnight from Saturday to Sunday in an attack on the town of Oicha, in North Kivu, AFP learned from security and local sources.
A few days earlier, the ADF had already killed at least 40 people in several towns in the Bapere sector, also in North Kivu province, according to local and security sources.
Samuel Kagheni Kakule, president of the Bapere sector civil society, contacted by telephone, reported "houses burned and people taken away" by the assailants during these attacks.
In response to the renewed attacks, MONUSCO said it had strengthened its military presence in several sectors and had allowed several hundred civilians to take refuge in its base.
At the end of 2021, Kampala and Kinshasa launched a joint military operation against the ADF, dubbed "Shujaa," so far without succeeding in putting an end to their attacks.
But the joint operations have pushed the ADF to more isolated and difficult-to-access areas, where the military is often slow to intervene.
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