DR Congo: ADF Rebels Kill About 20 Civilians In Ituri Villages
The rebels attacked the villages on Thursday, Dec. 16, according to local authorities.
At least 20 persons were reported to have been killed in attacks by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on villages in Ituri northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The rebels attacked the villages on Thursday, Dec. 16, according to local authorities.
“In their flight in the face of the joint operations by the Congolese and Ugandan armies on Thursday, the ADF killed three civilians in Mahu. In Lukaya, they ambushed a truck and killed five civilians,” said Col. Matadi Munyapande, military administrator of Mambasa in Ituri.
“Concerning attacks on other villages, I do not yet have precise information. Reinforcements have been dispatched to the zone and our units are on the heels of the rebels to track them down.”
According to Mambo Ndungo of the Mambasa civil society, “in addition to the five truck occupants killed in Lukaya, the ADF also killed five persons in the village of Ilimba, five in the village of Mausi and in Mikwata, three corpses were discovered.
“All these are provisional figures,” he added, noting that there has continued to be an exchange of fire between the rebels and the troops.
The villages of Mahu, Lukaya, Ilimba, Mausi, and Mikwata are situated on the periphery, about 10 kilometres into Mambasa territory.
On Nov. 30, the Ugandan army, with the authorization of DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, pounded ADF positions in the Virunga park before the Ugandan ground forces entered Congolese territory.
North Kivu and Ituri have been under a state of siege since May 6, 2021 with full powers given to the military to eliminate ADF activities in the eastern DR Congo. This has not however stopped the armed groups from continuing their exactions on the civilian populations.
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