ADF Rebels Kill 14 Farmers In DR Congo

Fourteen civilians were  killed on Thursday and Friday, April 7 and 8,  by an armed gang suspected to be rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the village of Otmaber, Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Fourteen civilians were killed in the forest around the village of Otmaber where they had gone to cultivate their farms and others to harvest, Thursday and Friday,” Dieudonne Malangay, leader of the local civil society revealed.

“The victims were surprised by ADF rebels and those who succeeded in escaping came to Otmaber and we followed them to where the corpses of the dead were.”

According to Malangay, “a majority of the victims were Nande, an agricultural community and businessmen from Beni territory in North Kivu whose families  came and collected their corpses.”

Christophe Munyanderu, a human rights activist in Goma confirmed the incident and casualty figure saying “14 civilians were killed by ADF rebels who have reinstalled themselves around Apakola, a village in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom.”

Otmaber is a big but enclaved village in the Irumu territory at the border with North Kivu province. This zone is in an area where the ADF, presented by the Islamic State as their Central African branch, is very active.

Since Nov. 30, 2021, after attacks in Uganda for which the ADF were accused, the Ugandan army and the DR Congo armed forces have been carrying out joint military operations in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.