Muslim Hate in the Congo
At least 23 killed in Islamist attack in north-east DR Congo
The attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were carried out
Tuesday and Wednesday in Ituri province along the border with Uganda.
AFP
28 February 2025
BUNIA, DR Congo - At least 23 people were killed and about 20 taken
hostage this week in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the
Congo by a group linked to Islamic State, local sources told AFP Friday.
The attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were carried out
Tuesday and Wednesday in Ituri province along the border with Uganda.
"A total of 23 people executed by these rebels" in the villages of
Matolo and Samboko, Jospin Paluku, coordinator of one of the main civil
society organizations in Mambasa territory, told AFP, specifying that
the toll is provisional.
At least another 20 civilians were "taken hostage, including the son of the village chief of Matolo", he added.
Humanitarian groups confirmed the numbers and said they were likely to
rise. The victims were mostly farmers working in the fields, a local
police chief said.
ADF, which is made of former Ugandan rebels, has been implanted since
the mid-1990s in the north-east of the DRC, where it has killed
thousands of civilians despite the deployment of the Ugandan army
alongside the Congolese armed forces.
At the end of 2021, Kampala and Kinshasa launched a joint military
operation against the ADF, called "Shujaa", without so far managing to
put an end to their operations.
Paluku said it was the first ADF attack since the start of the year, after a three-month lull.
Humanitarian groups confirmed the numbers and said they were likely to
rise. The victims were mostly farmers working in the fields, a local
police chief said.
ADF, which is made of former Ugandan rebels, has been implanted since
the mid-1990s in the north-east of the DRC, where it has killed
thousands of civilians despite the deployment of the Ugandan army
alongside the Congolese armed forces.
At the end of 2021, Kampala and Kinshasa launched a joint military
operation against the ADF, called "Shujaa", without so far managing to
put an end to their operations.
Paluku said it was the first ADF attack since the start of the year, after a three-month lull.
70 Christians found beheaded in church in DRC
Christians in DRC have again been left reeling after a heinous act of
violence that has left 70 believers dead. Please pray for our brothers
and sisters in the country as they face escalating persecution.
Open Doors
February 25, 2025
Seventy Christians have been found beheaded in a church in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in what’s the latest devastating
attack on believers in the north east of the country.
According to field sources, at around 4am last Thursday (13 February)
suspected militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a group
with ties to so-called Islamic State (IS) – approached homes in Mayba
in the territory of Lubero, saying: “Get out, get out and don’t make
any noise.” Twenty Christian men and women came out and were captured.
Shaken by this incident, people from the local community in Mayba later
gathered to work out how to release those held captive. However, ADF
militants surrounded the village and captured a further 50 believers.
All 70 of those kidnapped were taken to a Protestant church in Kasanga where they were tragically killed.
Muhindo Musunzi, director of the Kombo primary school [which belongs to
the CECA20 church], says that prior to this incident, churches, schools
and health centres had all shut their doors because of the chaotic
security situation. “We had to move all activities towards Vunying,” he
said.
Field sources report that, until yesterday Tuesday 18 February, some
families had not been able to bury their dead because of insecurity in
the area. Many Christians have now fled the area for their safety.
“We don’t know what to do or how to pray; we’ve had enough of
massacres,” says an elder of the CECA20 church. “May God’s will alone
be done.”
“This was not just an act of terror. It was a targeted massacre of
Christians, and it will not stop here,” says Illia Djadi, Senior
Analyst for Freedom of Religion or Belief in sub-Saharan Africa for
Open Doors. “The ADF is part of a growing extremist network that wants
to wipe out Christianity in the region. If nothing is done, more
attacks will follow.”
This latest awful incident is a continuation of the escalating threat
posed by ADF militants in the country’s north east region. In 2014, the
group intensified attacks in Beni territory in North Kivu province, and
since then attacks have spread to the territories of Irumu and Mambasa
in Ituri province, and now it’s affecting Lubero. In the last month
alone, the group have killed more than 200 people in Baswagha chiefdom,
according to a local news website.
This explains why DRC rose six places to number 35 in the latest World
Watch List. Last year, 355 were killed for their faith, compared with
261 the previous year, whilst an estimated 10,000 were internally
displaced, which is ten times more than 2023. Houses have been looted
and burnt, schools relocated, churches and health facilities closed,
and several Christian villages have been abandoned altogether.
The recent activities of the M23 rebel group – which taken over large
parts of North and South Kivu provinces, and is reportedly supported by
Rwanda – has added to the vulnerability of Christians. “The chaos
created by M23 has opened the door for the ADF to continue its campaign
of terror with total impunity,” says Djadi. “Christians in the region
have been abandoned. They are completely unprotected, and the world is
not paying attention.”
Illia believes that international pressure could be effective in
preventing further bloodshed. “We have seen before that international
pressure works. In 2012, M23 was stopped when the US and others put
diplomatic and economic pressure on Rwanda to withdraw its support. We
need that kind of leadership again. Governments must speak up now
before more lives are lost.”
More Than 50 D. R. Congo Christians Killed in Single Day of Violence
Barnabas Aid
January 16, 2025
At least 53 Christians were killed on January 15 in two Islamist
attacks in Lubero, North Kivu, north-eastern Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC).
The Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP, also known as the
Allied Democratic Forces) announced the killings in two social media
posts, according to the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium
(TRAC).
One of the two posts declared, “By the grace of God Almighty, the
soldiers of the Caliphate attacked the village of Makoko in the Lubero
region and killed 41 Christians [who] were stabbed with knives.”
The other post confirmed killing of 12 others in the village of Masakuki.
The terrorist group also abducted 16 Christians, as well as burning houses and motorcycles.
Attacks of this type have been carried out consistently by ISCAP since
the group first affiliated to Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) in
2017. However, the scale and frequency of the attacks has increased in
the past few weeks.
Relentless Targeting of Christians
Including the January 15 attacks, at least 128 have been slaughtered in
North Kivu and the neighboring province of Ituri since Christmas Day
2024.
A TRAC analysis concludes that the brutality of these attacks
underscore “the group’s relentless targeting of the Christian
population in the region.”
“ISCAP’s repeated assaults on Christian civilians exploit the absence
of a consistent security presence in the region,” the analysis
continues.
“ISCAP’s tactic of successive attacks on the same village exacerbates
the psychological toll on residents. By revisiting recently targeted
areas, the group ensures an ongoing state of fear and insecurity among
survivors.
“This strategy often results in higher casualties as panicked civilians
struggle to navigate the aftermath of consecutive assaults.”
16 killed, 20 abducted in Congo in attacks blamed on IS-linked rebels
Aug 17 2024
Associated Press
At least 16 villagers were killed and 20 others were abducted in
northeastern Congo during attacks by militants with ties to the Islamic
State group, a local civil society group said Friday.
The assailants with the Allied Democratic Forces staged a series of
attacks on locals, some while working on their farmlands, between
Wednesday and Friday in Ituri province's Mambasa territory, said John
Vulverio, coordinator of the New Civil Society of Congo.
The (death) toll remains provisional, as the fate of 20 others kidnapped remains unknown, he said.
Among those kidnapped in the attacks were the mother and sister of
Gilbert Sivamwenda, a local government official, local media quoted the
legislator as saying.
Dozens of villages across Congo are besieged by armed groups made up of
either local rebels fighting for power and valuable mineral resources
or militants with extremist ideologies. The Allied Democratic Forces
have carried out growing attacks in the region and sometimes across the
border with neighbouring Uganda where it was originally formed.
The violence across the central African nation has resulted in one of
the world's biggest humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million
people displaced, many beyond the reach of aid.
The 15,000-member UN peacekeeping mission in Congo that helped in the
fight against rebels for more than two decades was asked by the
Congolese government to leave over its failure to end the conflict. The
withdrawal is to be completed by the end of 2024.
Islamic Rebels Kill More than 30 Christians in Eastern DRC
8/12/2024 DRC (International Christian Concern) — The remains of more
than 30 people were found on July 24 following yet another brutal
attack on a Christian community by Islamic extremist Allied Democratic
Forces (ADF) in Eastern Congo.
The bodies, many of which had been decapitated, were discovered in the
Batangi-Mbau area of the Beni territory in North Kivu, Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Léon Siviwe, chief of Beni-Mbau, said the attack was part of a week
marked by escalating violence. The victims were primarily from several
villages within the Babila-Bakaiku locality, including Kotanarespe,
Nakota, Musangwa, and Akwekwe.
“These are our brothers, sisters, daughters, and sons who, in the end,
have lost their lives because of the ADF, who kill while speaking the
Arabic language,” one survivor recalled. “I remember the day when my
neighbor was taken and, in the end, he was found dead.”
Another resident described the emotional toll the attack had on families.
“The recent killings have shattered our community,” he said. “We are
left with empty chairs at our tables and memories that haunt us at
night. Mourning is a constant presence in our lives, and the trauma we
experience is something that will be passed down to our children. They
should be playing and laughing, but instead, they carry the weight of
fear and loss.”
In a reflection on the ongoing violence and its effect on the
community, the Anglican Bishop of Beni articulated the profound
psychological toll that living under constant threat has taken on
civilians in Beni.
“Living in fear is exhausting,” he said. “We try to maintain some
semblance of normalcy, but every loud noise sends us into panic mode.
The laughter of children has been replaced by silence or whispers about
who might be next. Our dreams have turned into nightmares, and we often
find ourselves looking over our shoulders.
“These atrocities create a pervasive anxiety and trauma experienced by
those in conflict zones, particularly in regions like eastern Congo,
where attacks by armed groups such as the ADF have become tragically
commonplace that defiles God’s purpose of creating man.”
International Christian Concern (ICC) has reported on several ADF
attacks on Christian communities since U.N. peacekeepers withdrew from
DRC earlier this year.
17 civilians killed by suspected ADF rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
Some of the victims were decapitated with machetes, says local official
By James Tasamba
AA
July 25, 2024
Suspected Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed
17 civilians in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, a local official said Wednesday.
The victims of the overnight attack were working in their fields about
20 kilometers (12.43 miles) west of the town of Oicha in Beni
territory, Oicha Mayor Nicolas Kikuku told reporters.
At least 17 bodies were taken to the morgue of Oicha's general hospital, said Kikuku.
Esdras Mathe, an official of the territorial youth council, said some
of the victims, including women and men, were decapitated with machetes.
Mathe called on the army to intensify operations in North Kivu and
Ituri provinces, saying the rebels were roaming there almost freely.
The attack came days after suspected ADF rebels killed 37 people in
separate attacks last week in Beni, according to local authorities.
In 2021, Congolese and Ugandan forces launched a joint military
offensive to flush out the ADF, which was founded in the 1990s by
several opposition movements in Uganda to topple the government of
President Yoweri Museveni.
The group pledged allegiance to the Daesh/ISIS terrorist organization in 2019.
The US on Wednesday announced its latest sanctions against three
individuals accused of facilitating the activities of Daesh/ISIS in
Africa, including financing the ADF.
The sanctions target key financiers and enablers who have facilitated
the terror group’s expansion across Central, Eastern and Southern
Africa.
Abubakar Swalleh, Zayd Gangat and Hamidah Nabagala were identified as
key operators and intermediaries between Daesh/ISIS operations in
countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Somalia
and South Africa.
ISIS horror as 'more than 60 Christians killed' including army officer in brutal attack
More than 60 Christians were killed by ISIS in Congo, the terrorist group has claimed.
By ALESSANDRA SCOTTO DI SANTOLO, World News Reporter
Fri, Jun 7, 2024
ISIS has claimed responsibility for a brutal attack in the Masala area
of Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which left more than 60
Christians dead.
The terrorist group made the claim through a post on their Telegram
channel, stating: "Central African state: More than 60 Christians were
killed, including a Congolese army officer, in an attack by Caliphate
soldiers in eastern Congo."
Recent Islamist attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have
intensified, particularly in the eastern regions of the country.
A recent attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia
affiliated with ISIS, resulted in the deaths of at least 14 Catholics.
The massacre, which occurred in the town of Eringeti, involved the victims being killed with machetes and rifles.
Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reported that many of the
victims were "very young" and were targeted for "refusing to convert
into Islam."
Pope Francis condemned the killings in a May 25 statement, calling the
actions of the victims “a testimony of martyrdom that a group of
Catholics from Congo, from North Kivu, have given in recent days.”
This incident is part of a larger pattern of violence against Christians in the region.
On May 13, another attack in the village of Ndimbo in Ituri Province
left at least 11 Christians dead, with many others kidnapped and homes
set ablaze.
"This horrific attack has left a trail of devastation and despair, with
the loss of life and destruction of property reaching catastrophic
proportions," said a survivor in an interview with International
Christian Concern.
Eastern Congo has been plagued by conflict for over 30 years, with more
than 100 armed groups and foreign armies vying for control of the
region's vast mineral resources.
The toll has been immense, with around six million people killed since 1996.
Additionally, 6.1 million people have been internally displaced, and
nearly a million Congolese have sought refuge in neighbouring countries
like Angola, Burundi, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, and
Zambia.
Ten Days of Terror and Death in Congo as Eighty Christians are Killed by the ADF
04/28/2023 DRC (International Christian Concern) – The Church in the
Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to bear the brunt
of terrorism from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of the many
armed groups operating across the region that has vowed to kill more
Christians to please Allah.
In ten days, North Kivu province has seen over 80 people killed and
hundreds abducted by the ADF extremist group that claims alliance with
the Islamic State. For decades, the ADF has killed, maimed, abducted,
and displaced millions of people in North Kivu despite the presence of
peacekeepers and local and regional troops in the troubled region.
In a statement, the Vicar of Babwisi Parish, where dozens of Christians
have been killed, said, “April has turned out to be a month of
bloodshed ironical of the expectation of having peace after celebrating
the death and the resurrection of Christ Jesus. From the 7th to the
18th, the killings of Christians were numerous in the following
entities: Mavete, Musandaba, Katere, and Mamungelesi, all in the West
Oicha.
The vicar went on to break down the figures, “On Friday, April 7, and
Saturday, April 8, 2023, 26 people were killed by the ADF rebels in
Mavete and Musandaba villages, Beni territory. Among them were members
of Babwisi parish which is Beni diocese, where eight men were killed
leaving widows and children.”
“On Tuesday 18th April 2023, 45 people were killed by these same ADF
rebels this time in Katere and Mamungelesi in one night of unfathomable
horror, where men, women, and children were slaughtered like chicken.
During his attack, we lost one of our evangelists together with his
wife. His name is Emmanuel Kambale. The parish is devastated. In
addition, over 30 people were abducted and their whereabouts are
unknown.”
He added, “Two days after the Katere and Mamungelesi attack, nine
bodies were discovered several kilometers away from Katere, and it was
established that they were victims of the Tuesday abductions by the
ADF. This brought the total of the Christians killed in Katere and
Mamungelesi to 54.”
Eighty people were killed and several abducted within these ten days of
April, with others believed to have been thrown into Samboko River
still missing, according to a survivor of the Katere attack.
These April attacks have forced thousands of people to flee their
villages and flood the nearest safer towns of Oicha, Mbau, and Beni as
refugees. The parish leader asked people of goodwill to come along and
help the many widows and orphans living as refugees in Oicha.
DRC: UN says more than 30 killed in new ADF attacks
AFP
April 7, 2023
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
The United Nations said on Thursday that more than 30 people had been
killed in new killings attributed to the ADF, a rebel group affiliated
with the Islamic State group, in Ituri in northeastern Democratic
Republic of Congo on April 2 and 3.
In his last quarterly report, published on 27 March, the UN
Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, had put at 485 the number of
civilians killed between 1 December and 14 March in this province
plagued by violence from several armed groups, including the ADF
(Allied Democratic Forces).
It was then alarmed by a "sharp rise" in violence in the eastern provinces of the DRC.
In a statement issued on Thursday evening, the UN mission in the DRC
(Monusco) said it had received reports of killings attributed to the
ADF "on 2 and 3 April at the border between the territory of Mambasa
and Irumu".
The head of Monusco, Bintou Keita, "condemns in the strongest terms"
these new massacres and "deplores these despicable attacks against the
civilian population", the statement said. "She urges the Congolese
authorities to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for
these summary executions.
Ms. Keita calls for "an immediate end to violence by all armed groups
against civilians" and "reiterates the Secretary-General's call on
foreign armed groups to lay down their arms unconditionally and return
to their countries of origin.
The ADF are originally predominantly Muslim Ugandan rebels who have
been operating since the mid-1990s in eastern DRC, where they are
accused of massacring thousands of civilians.
They pledged allegiance in 2019 to the Islamic State group, which portrays them as its branch in Central Africa.
IS group says it killed more than 35 'Christians' in Congo
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for killing more than 35 people and wounding dozens in eastern Congo
By SAM MEDNICK
Associated Press
March 11, 2023
DAKAR, Senegal -- The Islamic State group has issued a statement
claiming responsibility for killing more than 35 people and wounding
dozens in eastern Congo.
In the statement, posted Friday by Aamaq, the militants' news agency,
it said it killed “Christians” with guns and knives and destroyed their
property in Mukondi village in North Kivu province. It also published a
photo of the houses on fire.
The announcement comes after local authorities confirmed that at least
45 people were killed last week in several attacks on different
villages by rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, a militia with
links to IS.
Conflict has been simmering in eastern Congo for decades as more than
120 armed groups fight for power, influence and resources, and some to
protect their communities. The ADF has been largely active in North
Kivu province but has recently extended its operations into neighboring
Ituri province and to areas near the regional capital, Goma.
Efforts to stem the violence against ADF have yielded little. A nearly
year-long joint operation by Uganda and Congo’s armies did not achieve
the expected results of defeating or substantially weakening the group,
said a report in December by a panel of U.N. experts. The ADF rebels
are accused by the U.N. and rights groups of maiming, raping and
abducting civilians, including children. Earlier this month the United
States offered a reward of up to $5 million for information that could
lead to the capture of the group’s leader, Seka Musa Baluku.
On Thursday, AP reporters saw bodies lowered into a mass grave in
Mukondi. Community members shoveled dirt over the bodies against a
backdrop of destroyed houses and said the government wasn't doing
enough to protect them.
“As you see in Mukondi, it is always the same. ADF, which is always
ill-intentioned against the Congolese," said Col. Charles Ehuta
Omeonga, military administrator for Beni region. “We lost many of our
brothers,” he said.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo has condemned the
killings and is urging Congo’s authorities to investigate and bring
those responsible to justice.
Militia attacks kill 22 in east DR Congo - official, human rights group
Published Feb 13, 2023
Reuters
BENI — Militiamen killed 22 people in two separate attacks in the
Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Ituri province on Sunday and
Monday, a local official and a human rights group said, in ongoing
violence in the region.
The DRC’s government declared martial law in Ituri and neighboring
North Kivu province in 2021 to quell the bloodshed, but deadly raids
have continued.
The first attack on Sunday took place in the town of Mongbwalu, in Djugu territory, where 10 people were killed.
Mongbwalu Mayor Jean-Pierre Bikilisende blamed the attack on CODECO,
one of many militias operating in the DRC’s conflict-ridden east. The
group could not be reached for comment.
Bikilisende told Reuters the rebels opened fire on a phone credit
seller and then on other civilians standing on the same street before
escaping in a car when police arrived.
The second attack occurred around 60 kilometers (37 miles) away, in Irumu territory, during the night between Sunday and Monday.
Christophe Munyanderu, coordinator of the local group Convention for
the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH), said 12 villagers were killed.
He said the attackers were from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a
Ugandan armed group that has operated in east Congo for decades. It has
pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and stages frequent deadly
raids on villages.
Munyanderu also confirmed the 10 deaths in Mongbwalu.
The ADF could not be reached for comment and the DRC’s army did not respond to calls.
There was no indication as to the motive of either attack, but militia
violence has racked the vast mineral-rich east for two decades despite
local and regional military interventions and U.N. peacekeeping efforts.
Rebels Kill Seven, Target Health Clinics In Eastern DR Congo
By AFP - Agence France Presse
October 20, 2022
Rebels killed seven people and kidnapped a nurse during an attack
overnight in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, targeting two health
centres, local sources said Thursday.
"They even killed sick people," Norbert Muhindo, a nurse at the
referral clinic in the town of Maboya, in the Beni territory of North
Kivu province, told AFP.
The rebels belonged to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a movement
presented by the jihadist organisation Islamic State as its affiliate
in Central Africa, Muhindo said.
The raiders arrived in Maboya "around midnight", he declared, adding: "There were many of them. They said 'We want war'."
The attackers first set fire to the health centre, where they killed
three people, before heading into the centre of the town, where three
more killings were reported.
Muhindo said they moved on to "the Tinge hospital owned by the
Protestant community", about 1.5 kilometres (almost a mile) from the
Maboya health centre.
At Tinge, "they killed a sentry and took a nurse with them," he said.
Roger Wangeve, president of the civil society of the Bashu chiefdom (an
administrative body), confirmed the incursion, blaming "ADF rebels" who
"burned the Tinge hospital and the Maboya referral health centre".
According to Wangeve, the rebel force later "burned and looted villages".
The provisional toll of seven dead was confirmed by a police source who asked not to be named.
After a few weeks of calm, attacks have apparently resumed in the Beni
territory, where the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been engaged in
joint operations against the ADF for almost a year.
The ADF, which originated in western Uganda, is accused of massacres of
civilians in the east of the DRC and jihadist attacks at the end of
2021 in Uganda.
Eastern DRC has been destabilised for nearly three decades by the
presence of more than a hundred local and foreign armed groups,
including the ADF.
The DRC's provinces of North Kivu and Ituri have been under a state of
siege since May 2021, but the exceptional measure has so far failed to
stop the violence.
The joint DRC-Ugandan operation said that the ADF was being "pursued in
depth, is... rootless and very often attacks urban centres."
It called on the public to be vigilant and tip off the authorities about any suspicious movement.
The statement added that six ADF rebels had been killed in Beni's
Rwenzori sector had been killed and nine others, including a woman,
"neutralised" farther north in Ituri.
Items that were captured during these operations, whose dates were not
given, included an AK-47 assault rifle, eight ammunition clips and four
"rockets", as well as two mobile phones and five solar panels.
Congo Terror Attack Leaves Twenty Dead, including an Anglican Evangelist
Persecution.org
10/10/2022 DRC (International Christian Concern) – Twenty Congolese
Christians were killed and several others kidnapped after the Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF) struck the village of Kainama, Beni territory
in Nord Kivu on the night of October 4th. The bishop of the Beni
Anglican Diocese confirmed the attack, terming it “a devastating
occurrence that continues to bleed off hope that the Democratic
Republic of Congo(DRC) has been praying for.”
Among the twenty people beheaded was Sobu Mundeke, an evangelist with
the Anglican Church of Congo, who had traveled to Kainama to look for
food for his displaced family in Beni. One of the first responders to
the attack in the early morning of 5th October was Venerable
Jeanpierre, the Archdeacon of Kainama, who reported to ICC, “It pains
me to inform you that we have lost 20 Christians of the Banande-Kainama
camp and our evangelist, Sobu Mundeke, is one of them. Their bodies are
lying all over, and houses have been burnt down by the ADF rebels. Sobu
arrived last week from Beni in search of food for his family; little
did he know that he was coming to be killed. We have also confirmed
that other people are missing, and we know they have been taken away by
the Muslim fighters.”
Sobu and his family were displaced from the same area on May 28, 2022,
after the ADF militia group raided the Christian village of Vido,
killing sixteen people and torching ten houses. They went to live in
Beni town as internally displaced people, where the ICC team met him in
June. He was depending on well-wishers for his family’s upkeep, and so
he thought that going to the rich farming area of Kainama and coming
back with food would save his thirteen-member family. This time, he did
not make it.
The ADF Islamist militant group has continued to stage attacks on
Christians in Eastern DR Congo, ceaselessly leaving behind a trail of
unfathomable losses from killing innocent Congolese believers to
destroying shelters, food stores, hospitals, and vehicles. Their aim is
to impose Islamic rule on the Christians, and this they will do by
violating the freedom of worship of believers in order to cause fear
and recruit more people into Islam. After Sobu survived the first
attack, he disclosed, “I heard them. They were shouting in Arabic and
Swahili, saying that the kafirs [nonbelievers] should be killed, all of
them, and make Congo an Islamic state. Shoot all of them. Kill all of
them, and burn their houses, these notorious Christians.”
The bishop of Beni has recounted a total of 50 deaths to the atrocities
of the ADF terrorists since the beginning of this October.
“We are losing believers almost every night savagely slaughtered or
shot dead by the Muslim rebels. We do not get to know all the cases,
but we can verify that since the beginning of this month, 50 have been
killed, and tens taken away as hostages to serve the rebels in their
camps inside the forests.”
He continued, “In the Ruwenzori Sector, on the night of October 1, they
killed 11 people with several cases of missing people. Again on the
night of October 2, 19 people were brutally killed, and others went
missing in Mambume, Mutuei, and Mangazi in the locality of Mamove,
Oicha. Then on Tuesday night, October 4th, they massacred 20 people in
Kainama, and several others are reported missing until now.”
These recent attacks have instigated a massive exodus of the displaced
local population towards the supposedly secure towns of Eringeti,
Oicha, Beni, and Kasindi, leading to an influx of venerable women,
children, and men requiring huge humanitarian aid to avert their
already deplorable situation.
Militants kill at least 40 villagers in east Congo attacks
By Reuters
August 30, 2022
BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Suspected
Islamist militants killed at least 40 civilians in a string of attacks
on several villages in east Democratic Republic of Congo between
Thursday and Monday, a local human rights group and a hospital worker
said Tuesday.
Assailants believed to be members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)
first targeted a group of villagers from North-Kivu province that had
crossed into neighboring Ituri province to look for arable land near
the Ituri River on Aug. 25.
Christophe Munyanderu, coordinator of the local group Convention for
the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH), said ADF fighters had executed more
than 40 men, women and children in five villages since Thursday.
“All this under the eyes of the authorities,” said Munyanderu. “We are dying here but nothing is being done.”
Mathe Mupanda Salomon, a nurse at a hospital in one of the villages,
said he saw the bodies of 26 villagers who were killed and 76 kidnapped
in one of attacks.
The head of the surrounding Babila-Bakaiko locality, Charles Kisubi
Endukadi, confirmed rebels had attacked several villages and that most
bodies had yet to be recovered.
The Congolese army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ADF, a Uganda militia with ties to Islamic State, is one of several
armed groups wrangling over resources and attacking civilians in
Congo’s east, which is rich in minerals such as tin, tantalum, tungsten
and gold.
Escalating attacks prompted the government to declare a state of siege
in Ituri and North Kivu in April 2021. But the security situation has
continued to deteriorate under military rule, United Nations experts
said in June.
Suspected Islamists kill at least 18 in east Congo attack
The ADF is a Ugandan
militia that moved to eastern Congo in the 1990s and has killed more
than 1,300 people between January 2021 and January 2022.
NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA
JUNE 6, 2022
Suspected
militants killed at least 18 people in a village raid in eastern Congo
as fighting resumed with the M23 rebel group in a neighbouring province.
A local
chief and a local human rights group said fighters, believed to be from
the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), killed residents and burned down
houses in the Otomabere village in Irumu territory, Ituri province on
Sunday night.
Congolese army spokesperson, Jules Ngongo, confirmed the ADF attack
without giving a death toll and said Congolese forces were in pursuit
of the assailants.
The ADF is a Ugandan militia that moved to eastern Congo in the 1990s.
The group carried out frequent attacks and killed more than 1,300
people between January 2021 and January 2022, according to a United
Nations report.
“We were chatting with some friends outside when we heard gunshots and
everyone fled in a different direction. It was total panic,” said
Kimwenza Malembe, a resident of Otomabere, adding that “this morning we
counted 18 dead, killed by knives and firearms.”
Christophe Munyanderu, the coordinator of the local group Convention
for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH), said the provisional death toll
was 20.
Uganda has sent at least 1,700 troops to neighbouring Congo to help
fight the ADF and last week the two countries extended their joint
operation launched late last year.
Congo government spokesperson, Patrick Muyaya, said fighting resumed on
Monday between the Congolese army and the M23, a rebel group claiming
to represent the interests of ethnic Tutsis.
Suspected Islamist militants kill 20 civilians in eastern Congo
By Erikas Mwisi
February 28, 2022
BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo, (Reuters) - Suspected
Islamist militants killed at least 20 civilians in northeastern
Democratic Republic of Congo overnight, according to a local resident
and an activist who criticised the failure of Congolese and Ugandan
forces to stop the repeated massacres.
The attack late on Sunday evening in the village of Kikura was blamed
by the resident and the activist on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF),
a Ugandan militia that has killed thousands of civilians in eastern
Congo since 2013.
Congolese and Ugandan troops launched joint operations against the ADF
in late November but attacks by the group, which has pledged allegiance
to Islamic State, have continued to kill dozens of civilians each month.
The assailants struck at around 9 p.m. with machetes and also burned
down houses, said Odette Zawadi, the president of a local activist
organisation. She said 20 bodies had been recovered and that the death
toll could rise further.
"We already didn't seem to have confidence in these so-called joint
operations. How can you explain that 20 people are killed in the
presence of these two forces?," she told Reuters.
Claude Kalinde, a local resident, confirmed that 20 bodies had been recovered.
"We thought that the coalition of the Congolese and Ugandan armies would help us, but look at how sad this is," he said.
Capitaine Antony Mwalushayi, a spokesman for Congo's army, said it had
taken a while for soldiers in the area to learn of the attack since it
was carried out without firearms.
"We cannot be discouraged because the objective of the enemy is to discourage us, to separate us from the population," he said.
A spokesman for Uganda's army was not immediately available to comment.
The ADF started as an uprising in Uganda but has been based in Congo
since the late 1990s. It pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019,
but United Nations researchers have found no evidence of Islamic State
control over its operations.
Suspected Islamists kill at least 12 in eastern Congo attacks on villages
By:Reuters
Published: Jan 25, 2022
By Erikas Mwisi Kambale KINSHASA (Reuters) – Suspected Islamist
militants have killed at least 12 civilians and burned houses and
motorbikes during raids on two villages in eastern Democratic Republic
of Congo, two local human rights groups said on Wednesday.
Fighters believed to be from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a
Ugandan militia active in eastern Congo since the 1990s, attacked the
villages of Mutuheyi and Mapendo in Ituri province on Sunday night, the
activists said.
Since launching a joint military operation against the ADF in November,
Congo and Uganda claim to have captured several of the ADF’s jungle
camps, but the militia’s attacks on civilians have not stopped.
Christophe Munyanderu, head of a local rights group, said the attackers
came from bases in nearby North Kivu province and killed the 13 people,
burned four motorbikes and torched six houses.
Patrick Musubao, president of another rights group, said 12 people had
been killed. He said the victims were shot or butchered with bladed
weapons.
He warned authorities of the presence of the ADF in the area before the attack but had no response, he said.
“Now a dozen people have just been innocently killed,” Musubao told Reuters.
Army spokesman Jules Ngongo Tshikudi confirmed an attack had taken
place in the villages but did not give a death toll or say who was
responsible. He said soldiers could do nothing to stop the attack.
“The army has had no warning. What is important here is to impose peace in this area and the army will not rest,” he said.
No group has taken responsibility for the killings. The ADF does not
have a spokesperson and does not usually comment on its operations.
The ADF pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in mid-2019. Islamic
State has in turn claimed responsibility for some of the ADF’s
violence, including bombings in Uganda and Congo late last year.
United Nations researchers, however, have found no evidence of IS command and control over the group’s operations.
Death Toll From Attack In DR Congo's Beni Jumps To 38: Experts, NGO
Umer Jamshaid
15th November 2021
Beni, DR Congo, (APP
- UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Nov, 2021) The death toll from
attacks last week in eastern DR Congo attributed to the ADF rebel group
has risen to 38, the Red Cross and a security watchdog said Monday.
The toll, which initially stood at five in an attack on a hospital in
Beni, "has been revised to 38 dead after the discovery of new bodies"
in two neighbouring villages, the respected Kivu Security Tracker
reported.
The local Red Cross also counted 38 dead from the attack blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group.
"Most of the bodies were tied up and their throats were slit by machetes," Red Cross official Samy Kaleverwa said.
"For now it's hard to have the exact number of men and women killed
because we haven't finished searching for bodies in the bush," he added.
Islamic State claims
responsibility for attack in Congo
CAIRO, Oct 23, 2021 (Reuters) - Islamic State
claimed responsibility for an attack on a village this week in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a statement published on Friday on
its affiliated Telegram channels.
Residents of Kalembo
village told Reuters that rebels killed 16 people and torched houses in an
attack on Wednesday that a local human rights group blamed on the Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan armed group active in the region.
The statement said Islamic State was
responsible for the attack in the village about 40 km (25 miles) east of the
city of Beni.
The ADF has operated in the dense forests near
the Ugandan border for more than three decades and began killing civilians in
large numbers in 2014.
The group has publicly aligned itself with Islamic
State, but a June report from the United Nations found no evidence of direct
support from Islamic State to the ADF.
19 civilians killed in DR Congo by Islamic
State-linked militants
AFP
August 29, 2021
Nineteen civilians in the eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo were burned and hacked to death on Friday by Ugandan Islamist
rebels, a local official said on Saturday.
Fourteen bodies were found on Saturday, Kakule Kalunga told AFP. A local
chief said they were discovered by Red Cross workers who went into nearby
forest to look for those missing after the attack on Kasanzi
village in the Beni territory of North Kivu.
Beni lies at the heart of an area where the
Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) - linked to Islamic State - have mounted deadly
attacks in spite of emergency security measures by President Felix Tshisekedi.
The "19 people were killed by the rebels
who plague the territory of Beni, the ADF," Kalunga
said, adding that the victims were killed by "bladed weapons and
fire", and that houses were also set ablaze.
In a statement on Friday, Meleki
Mulala, a spokesperson for the New Civil Society organisation in Rwenzori, deplored the absence of military
personnel around Beni.
Regional military sources contacted by AFP on
Saturday did not immediately comment.
Since May, the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri have been under a state of siege, replacing civilian
authorities with army and police officers to fight armed groups.
Earlier this month, a contingent of US special
operations forces arrived in the area to help the Congolese army in their fight
against the ADF, US and Congolese sources said at the time.
The size of the contingent was unknown but
around a dozen soldiers could be seen in official photos of a meeting between
Tshisekedi and a delegation led by US ambassador to the Democratic Republic of
Congo Mike Hammer.
At least 16 killed in road ambush by suspected
militants in eastern Congo
BENI, Congo, July 23, 2021 (Reuters) - At least
16 people, including six women and two children, have been killed in a
suspected Islamist militant attack on a remote road in northeast Democratic
Republic of Congo, the director of a local hospital said on Friday.
The attack took place on a road near the town
of Oicha, around 390 km (242 miles) north of the
eastern provincial capital of Goma. Nine others were injured, with three,
including a baby, in critical condition, according to hospital staff.
Survivors blamed the assault on the Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militant group that claims links to
Islamic State. They have been accused of killing thousands of people since
2014, mostly in similarly remote areas.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility,
and the ADF could not be reached.
Maman Masika
Kahindo, a local farmer, said she was travelling in a
minibus with her 11-year-old son when fighters dressed in ADF fatigues fired on
the crowded vehicle and killed her son.
"They fired several bullets and the driver
immediately died," Kahindo said, wearing
bandages over her chest where she said she had been grazed by gunfire.
"They took him out of the vehicle and shot my child in the head."
Janvier Kasayiro, who
heads a local coalition of civil society groups, also blamed Islamist
militants, adding that several people who had been travelling in the same bus
as Kahindo were still missing.
The government declared martial law in North
Kivu and the neighbouring Ituri
province at the beginning of May, in an attempt to quell a surge in violence
that the military largely attributes to the ADF.
But the number of civilians killed in such
attacks has only increased since then, according to the Kivu Security Tracker,
which maps unrest in eastern Congo.
At least 55
killed in eastern Congo massacres, U.N. says
Reuters
May 31, 2021
At least 55
people were killed overnight in two attacks on villages in eastern Congo, the
United Nations said on Monday, in potentially the worst night of violence the
area has seen in at least four years.
The army and a
local civil rights group blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist
armed group, for raiding the village of Tchabi and a
camp for displaced people near Boga, another village. Both are close to the
border of Uganda.
Houses were
burned and civilians abducted, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs said in
a statement.
Albert Basegu, the head of a civil rights group in Boga, told
Reuters by telephone that he had been alerted to the attack by the sound of
cries at a neighbour's house.
"When I
got there I found that the attackers had already
killed an Anglican pastor and his daughter was also seriously wounded," Basegu said.
The Kivu Security
Tracker (KST), which has mapped unrest in restive eastern Congo since June
2017, said on Twitter the wife of a local chief was among the dead. It did not
attribute blame for the killings.
"It's the
deadliest day ever recorded by the KST," said Pierre Boisselet,
the research group's coordinator.
The ADF is
believed to have killed more than 850 people in 2020, according to the United
Nations, in a spate of reprisal attacks on civilians after the army began
operations against it the year before.
In March the
United States labelled the ADF a foreign terrorist organisation.
The group has in the past proclaimed allegiance to Islamic State, although the
United Nations says evidence linking it to other Islamist militant networks is
scant.
President Felix
Tshisekedi declared a state of siege in Congo's North Kivu and Ituri provinces on May 1 in an attempt to curb increasing
attacks by militant groups.
Uganda
announced earlier this month that it had agreed to share intelligence and
coordinate operations against the rebels but that it would not be deploying
troops in Congo.
Suspected Islamists kill 23 civilians in
eastern Congo
By Reuters Staff
March 31, 2021
BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -
Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 23 civilians in an overnight raid
on a village near Beni in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the provincial
governor’s office said on Wednesday.
The death toll was still provisional as the
search for bodies continued in Manyama-Moliso, north
of the city of Beni, the North Kivu governor’s office said on Twitter.
It blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a
Ugandan militia active in eastern Congo since the 1990s. The authorities have
blamed the ADF for the deaths of hundreds of people since 2014.
The group has stepped up reprisals against
civilians since Congo’s army launched a fresh offensive in late 2019.
The United States designated the ADF a foreign
terrorist organisation earlier this month, accusing
it of links to Islamic State.
U.N. experts in Congo, however, have not found
evidence of a direct relationship between the two groups.
Two of the assailants were also killed when the
army responded, the governor’s office added.
Forty-Six Civilians Feared Killed in Eastern
Congo Attack, Official Says
Jan. 14, 2021
KINSHASA (REUTERS) - Forty-six civilians
are reported to have been killed in an attack by suspected Islamist militants
on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a senior provincial
official said on Thursday.
Local security forces have been dispatched to
the village in Irumu territory to investigate,
provincial interior minister Adjio Gidi said by phone.
He said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were
behind the raid. The Ugandan armed group is believed to have carried out a
string of massacres in eastern Congo, killing more than 1,000 civilians since
the start of 2019, according to U.N. figures.
After being alerted to the latest violence,
troops went to the village and are in the process of recovering bodies, local
army spokesman Jules Ngongo said. He did not say how
many had been killed.
Congo’s eastern borderlands with Uganda,
Rwanda and Burundi are home to a constellation of over 100 different militias,
many remnants of its brutal civil wars that officially ended in 2003.
On Sunday, unidentified attackers killed at
least six rangers in an ambush in eastern Congo’s Virunga National Park,
a sanctuary for endangered mountain gorillas.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for
many suspected ADF attacks in the past, although U.N. experts have not been
able to confirm any direct link between the two groups.
At least 25 killed by rebels in eastern Congo;
some beheaded
A local official says at least 25 people have
been killed in an attack on New Year’s Eve by rebels in Congo’s
eastern Beni territory
By JEAN-YVES KAMALE
Associated Press
January 1, 2021
KINSHASA, Congo -- At least 25 people were
killed in an attack on New Year’s Eve by rebels in Congo’s eastern Beni
territory, local officials said Friday.
Farmers had gone to the fields in the village
of Tingwe when they were attacked by Allied
Democratic Forces rebels, according to the representative of the governor in
the region, Sabiti Njiamoja.
Some of the bodies were found by rescue teams
in the bushes on Friday, he said.
“We are in mourning,” Njiamoja said.
Local civil society representative Bravo Muhindo confirmed more than 25 dead and said many had been
beheaded.
Other people were kidnapped, Muhindo said.
Residents in Beni and surrounding villages have
been calling for increased security as the ADF rebels stage attacks in the
region.
The ADF originated in neighboring Uganda and
has long been a threat in eastern Congo. The Islamic State group has claimed
some attacks carried out by ADF rebels, but the exact relationship between the
groups is not clear.
A Congolese military campaign was launched
against the rebels last year and fighters have since dispersed and fled into
various parts of eastern Congo, where dozens of armed groups fight over control
of the mineral-rich land.
Rebels have responded to the military offensive
with increased attacks, killing more than 800 people last year.
Dozens killed in eastern DRC in latest attacks
blamed on ADF
Twenty-nine people were killed in Virunga park
and at least six civilians slaughtered in nearby village of Kokola,
officials say.
17 Nov 2020
aljazeera
Some three dozen people
have been killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC’s)
troubled east, local officials have said, blaming a notorious armed group that
has been accused of killing hundreds of civilians over the past year.
Twenty-nine bodies were found in the Virunga
National Park after being “executed en
masse”, Jean-Bosco Sebishimbo, the interior
minister of North Kivu province, said on Tuesday.
He added that six civilians were also killed
during “an armed attack” in the nearby village of Kokola earlier on Tuesday.
The United Nations Organization Stabilization
Mission in the DRC confirmed that six people were killed in Kokola,
while the provincial government “strongly” condemned “this
latest slaughter of civilians”.
Sebishimbo said the first
indications about the perpetrators point towards the Allied Democratic Forces
(ADF), an armed group that is “very active in the area”.
A security source told Reuters news agency it
was suspected, based on the state of decomposition of the victims’ bodies
and their location, that the victims were among the more than 1,400 men who
escaped from Beni prison when it was attacked by suspected ADF fighters on
October 19.
Both attacks occurred in North Kivu’s
Beni territory, where 811 civilians have been killed since October 31 last
year, according to the Kivu Security Tracker.
It was on that date that the Congolese army
launched a large operation against the ADF’s leaders and bases in the
jungle around the city of Beni.
The militia responded by intensifying a
campaign of massacres in rural areas, seeking to dissuade civilians from
collaborating with the military, experts say.
“The horror of this macabre new discovery
cannot leave anyone indifferent,” said the European Union’s
ambassador to the DRC, Marc Chataigner.
The ADF, which has been active in the region
since the 1990s, is one of more than 100 militias in the eastern provinces of
the vast country.
More than 1,000 civilians have been killed by
the ADF in 2019-2020, according to UN figures.
The ADF has never claimed responsibility for
attacks. But since April 2019, several of its assaults have been claimed by the
so-called Islamic State’s Central Africa Province, without providing
proof.
58
killed in fresh DR Congo attacks
(AFP)
Published September 10, 2020
Fifty-eight people have
been killed in the eastern DR Congo province of Ituri,
the province’s interior minister told AFP on Thursday, attributing the
massacres to a notorious militia.
Twenty-three people were
killed in Irumu territory in southern Ituri on Tuesday, followed by 35 there on Thursday, said
minister Adjio Gidi.
“Large numbers of the
population” have fled their homes, he told AFP.
He blamed the Allied Democratic
Forces, which originated in the 1990s as a Ugandan Muslim rebel group.
“It was ADF, fleeing
military pressure in (neighbouring) North Kivu
province, namely in (the) Beni (region),” Gidi
said.
“Our forces are
already in the area and are in contact with the enemy,” he said.
Hundreds of civilians have
died at the hands of the ADF since the armed forces launched a crackdown in
North Kivu last November.
The latest attacks took
place in a heavily forested area called Tshabi.
“People were killed
with every sort of weapon, knives, guns,” a member of the Nyali community in Tshabi,
Richard Balengilyao, told AFP.
The search effort was being
complicated by thick forest, he said.
“Right now, the Congolese army, supported by local people, is
still looking for victims in the forest,” he said.
“Seventeen people are listed as disappeared, but they have almost
definitely been kidnapped.”
The ADF is one of more than 100 armed groups that trouble the eastern
provinces of the vast Democratic Republic of Congo, many of which are the
legacy of full-fledged wars of the 1990s.
The northern part of Ituri this year has seen
brutal killings in the territory of Djugu, blamed on
an ethnically-based militia called the Cooperative for the Development of
Congo, or CODECO.
A senior delegation from the central government was scheduled to arrive
in Ituri on Friday to discuss the province’s
security problems.
More than 30 civilians killed in
attacks in eastern DR Congo
30/01/2020
Thirty-six people have been killed in a suspected militia attack
in the eastern DR Congo region of Beni, where hundreds have died in violence
since November, a local official said Wednesday.
Congolese troops have been carrying out a military operation on an
armed group in the east of the country --
long plagued by various militias -- and militiamen have responded with a series
of massacresagainst civilians.
"They were all hacked to death. This brings (the toll) to 36
bodies," local Beni governor Donat Kibwana told AFP, updating casualties from Tuesday's
attack.
Officials had earlier reported 15 fatalities.
Two people with skull fractures caused by machetes have been
admitted to the hospital in Oicha for surgery, an AFP
reporter there said.
The main attack took place late Tuesday in Manzingi,
a village 20 kilometres (12 miles) northwest from Oicha, while a pastor was also killed in nearby Eringeti.
According to a toll compiled by a civil society organisation, the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), 265 people
have now been killed in the Beni region since the army began its crackdown on
the armed group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), on October 30.
The massacres seem to be a tactic by the ADF to frighten the
population into silence, local commentators say.
The group has also disrupted operations to curb an outbreak of
Ebola in North Kivu province.
Tuesday's massacre occurred to the west of the ADF's usual area of
operations, which is closer to the Ugandan border.
The army offensive, unfolding in thick forest and jungle, has led
to what the military say is the capture of the group's headquarters and the
killing of five of its six leaders.
Brutal militia
The ADF, blamed for the deaths of more than a thousand civilians
in Beni since October 2014, began as an Islamist-rooted rebel group in Uganda
that opposed Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
It fell back into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 1995 during
the Congo Wars and appears to have halted raids inside Uganda. Its recruits
today are people of various nationalities.
UN experts estimated the ADF in 2018 to number around 450 fighters.
A report to the UN Security Council last week said the ADF seemed
to follow an extreme Islamist ideology, but there is no information on whether
the group had links with international jihadist groups.
The spate of massacres has become a major challenge for President
Felix Tshisekedi, who took office a year ago last Friday.
In November, angry protests erupted in the city of Beni, the
region's administrative hub, as citizens accused the UN peacekeeping force in
DR Congo of failing to protect them.
Tshisekedi, in his first state-of-the-nation address to Congress,
last month said he had changed the army command in Beni and sent 22,000 troops
to the region.
(AFP)
43 dead in Congo after group with
links to Islamic State go door-to-door in killing spree
A human rights group says at least 11 people are dead in the
latest of a series of rebel attacks in eastern Congo, bringing to 43 the number
killed in the assaults.
December 16, 2019
Associated Press
Rebels with apparent links to the Islamic State group have killed
at least 43 people in eastern Congo over the weekend in a series of attacks
carried out in response to a new military offensive in the area, a rights group
said Monday.
Rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces in some cases went
door-to-door shooting their victims dead, according to a Congolese human rights
group known by its French acronym, CEPADHO.
The rebels have been trying to pit the civilian population against
the army so that people demand the military action be stopped, said Omar Kavotha, president of the rights organization. Insecurity
in the area already prompted demonstrators to protest late last month by
setting fire to the town hall.
The deadly weekend violence targeted an area in eastern Congo that
is at the heart of the Ebola epidemic, which has killed more than 2,200 people
since August, 2018.
“These attacks will certainly paralyze the Ebola response teams,” said Dr. Pierre Celestin Adikey,
who coordinates the effort to control the disease in the Beni region. “The
movement of the population becomes difficult to control.”
Other armed groups in the area such as the Mai Mai
militias also may take advantage of the insecurity to carry out attacks of
their own, he said.
The medical effort to control the second deadliest Ebola outbreak
in history has been severely hampered since the start by the presence of so
many armed groups in eastern Congo.
Health teams have at times been unable to safely get to areas to
carry out vaccinations of those at highest risk of contracting the deadly
virus. Without the ability to react quickly, Ebola has continued to spread.
Community mistrust of the health workers has only further deepened the problem.
The latest burst of attacks began late Friday when ADF rebels
attacked Beni city, killing six. The militants then spread the violence to
several communities surrounding Beni.
Late Sunday, rebels went door-to-door killing people in Kamango, the human rights group said.
The Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, originated in Uganda and has
long been a threat in neighboring eastern Congo. More recently, the Islamic
State group has claimed attacks carried out by ADF rebels though the exact
relationship between the two is not entirely clear.
Suspected
Islamists kill at least 19 in latest east Congo attack
NOVEMBER 27, 2019
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters)
- Suspected Islamist rebels have killed at least 19 people in east Congo, an
official said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of attacks causing anger at
the perceived inaction of the army and U.N. troops.
The raid occurred overnight in the village of
Maleki, near the city of Oicha
in a forested region near the Ugandan border, said Donat
Kibwana, the administrator of Beni territory.
Kibwana blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist rebel
group originally from Uganda that has operated for decades in Congo. They have
killed at least 80 people in 14 raids since the army launched an operation
against them late last month, according to U.N figures.
He said that many family members of the victims
were afraid to return to the scene for fear of being attacked, but that an
initial search had found 19 people dead.
“This assessment remains provisional as the
search continues,” Kibwana
told Reuters by phone.
ISIS
claims first attack in DR Congo, saying it killed soldiers near Uganda border
JOANNE
STOCKER
APRIL 18, 2019
THE DEFENSE POST
Islamic State on Thursday, April 18 claimed that it killed Congolese soldiers
in an attack in Kamango near the border between
Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
A
message posted by its Amaq propaganda agency said
there were Congolese army “dead and wounded” following an attack by ISIS
fighters in the town of Kamango near the border.
In
a later statement, ISIS said “soldiers of the Caliphate” had attacked an army
base in the village of Bovata, roughly 5 km (3 miles)
from Komango in Beni region, “where they clashed with
small and medium weapons.” Three Congolese army
soldiers were killed and five others injured, the group claimed.
If
confirmed, it would be the first attack in DR Congo that ISIS central has
acknowledged.
Citing
U.N. peacekeeping and civil society sources, Reuters reported that two
Congolese soldiers and a civilian were killed in clashes in Bovata
on Tuesday. The sources said witnesses had blamed the Allied Democratic Forces
for the attack.
ISIS
ascribed the attack to “Central Africa Province,” the
first time the group has named an affiliate in the region. As in some other
areas, Islamic State did not have an official wilayat,
or province, in DR Congo, but had tentative links to the Allied Democratic
Forces, a Ugandan-led militant group founded in 1995 with the stated goal of
overthrowing the Ugandan government and creating an Islamic state.
Some time after 2012,
the ADF adopted the Madina at Tauheed
Wau Mujahedeen (MTM) – the City of Monotheism and
Holy warriors, according to the Congo Research Group, which has argued the ADF
has been “making a tentative attempt to align itself with other militant
Islamist groups.”
The
ADF operates in the border area in the DRC’s North Kivu province, an area where
other armed groups are also active. The government has often blamed the ADF for
killings, robberies and kidnappings, but numerous other armed groups operate in
the region and sometimes it is unclear who the true assailants are.
The
ADF is thought to have killed at least 700 civilians and more than 20 United
Nations peacekeepers.
The ADF was believed to be behind an attack that killed seven
people on February 8, was blamed for killing 10 soldiers and civilians on
January 9, and nine people in an attack on January 9, all in the Beni region of
North Kivu.
Dozens killed as Islamist violence erupts again in eastern DRC
November 3, 2017
By World Watch Monitor
After a period of relative calm, violence has resumed in eastern DRC. Various
attacks by armed groups, including the radical Islamic group Muslim Defense
International (MDI), formerly known as the Allied Democratic Forces, have
claimed dozens lives among civilians in September and October.
In one recent attack on 26 October, suspected MDI militants stormed the Masiani neighbourhood of Beni.
Local sources say the militants were hiding in the neighbourhood,
waiting for nightfall to attack the local population, but that a soldier
discovered them and immediately alerted security forces. The rebels then
immediately burst into action and attacked the city. Clashes with the military
led to at least six deaths (one soldier, five civilians).
A foreign missionary in the area described a chaotic situation, which caused
fear among residents: “When we arrived we could not
get into our neighbourhood. It was a real
battlefield. Bombs, gunfire and people running. Large calibre
shells are everywhere. A thousand or so people fled the area towards Beni,” he said.
In the early hours of Friday 27 October, unidentified gunmen also attacked the Nyankunde Evangelical hospital in Beni, situated on the
Beni-Butembo road. Local sources say the attackers woke up the director of the
hospital at about 1am, and forced him to lie down on the floor. They told him
to give them all the money he kept with him.
Other medical personnel were also ordered to lie on the floor. The assailants
looted money, some medicine and about 40 mobile phones belonging to the
patients, carers and nurses.
They also beat up some of the nurses and patients at the hospital and left just
before security forces arrived.
Earlier in October dozens were killed, including two UN peacekeepers, following
raids attributed to MDI militants and clashes with the army backed up by UN
troops. Some 11 civilians were killed when a convoy was ambushed between Kamango and Beni on the evening of Saturday 7 October. Most
of the victims had their throats slit with machetes. More than 20 others were
kidnapped, and their decomposed bodies were found a week later and buried on 15
October.
Violence in the volatile province of North Kivu claimed more than 1,000 lives
between October 2014 and May 2016, according to local NGOs.
The Congolese government has always attributed responsibility for such attacks
to MDI militants. But a recent report by the Congo Research Group, an
independent group linked with New York University, cast doubt on that
assessment.
The report – the result of over two years of research and 245 interviews,
including many with perpetrators – claims to uncover “a more complex” and “more
disturbing” reality.
The report, ‘Mass Killings in Beni Territory: Political Violence, Cover Ups,
and Cooptation’, attributes some of the blame to the Congolese army,
specifically naming one commanding officer, General Muhindo
Akili Mundos.
The recent upsurge of violence coincides with social unrest as protesters
demand the departure of President Joseph Kabila, whose constitutional mandate expired
in December 2016. On Monday (30 October), some activists, members of LUCHA (Lutte pour le changement
/Struggle for change), marched in the streets of Goma, the North Kivu provincial
capital, chanting, in French, “Joseph Kabila must go because his mandate has
ended”. At least five people were killed in clashes between protesters and
security forces, although some sources report as many as 30 deaths.
DRC has been in political turmoil since December 2016, when President Kabila’s second and last mandate expired without fresh
elections.
The San Silvestro Agreement, mediated by Catholic Bishops, on 31 December
provided for the establishment of a national unity government aimed at leading
the country to new elections by 2017. But analysts now say it is impossible to
meet the deadline as the national elections body, the CENI (Commission Electorale Nationale Independante), said elections can only be held 504 days
after the end of voter registration.
Some have accused the government of masterminding the violence in the east of
the country and the central province of Kasai, with the aim of creating a
climate of instability which will serve as a pretext for President Kabila to
stay in power.
Islamist Extremists Attack Churches, Terrorise Nuns
In Bid To Sabotage Church's Peace Mission In The Congo
Hazel Torres
24 February 2017
Christian Today
Islamist extremism is bringing death and destruction not only in the Middle
East but in other parts of the world as well.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
formerly Zaire, in Central Africa, Islamist extremists have been targeting
churches in what a top Roman Catholic official believes is a deliberate effort
to "sabotage the church's mission of peace and reconciliation" in the
country and bring it back from the brink of war.
Roman Catholic Cardinal Monsengwo Pasinya
of Kinshasa told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need that churches
in the DRC are being desecrated and Christian nuns terrorised
by "violent thugs" amid a wave of increased hostility on Christians.
Last week, the extremists burned the Malole major
seminary and "sown terror among the Carmelite Sisters" in nearby
Kananga, Pasinya said.
The extremists also attacked the St. Dominic church in the town of Limete. They "overturned the tabernacle, ransacked the
altar, smashed some of the benches and attempted to set fire to the
church," the archbishop said.
Late last year, at least 38 people were killed when the Islamist militant group
Allied Democratic Force (ADF) attacked the DRC town of Beni, according to Open
Doors USA.
The ADF has reportedly killed more than 700 people in various attacks since
2014. Christians believe the Islamist extremists want to uproot and drive them
out of the Congo so that the extremists can take control of the East Africa
Lakes area.
In August last year, Pope Francis denounced the Christian persecution in the
Congo after at least 36 Christians were hacked to death by the jihadist group
in the North Kivu region.
"My thoughts go to the people of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, who have been recently hit with fresh massacres, which have for some
time been perpetrated in shameful silence, without attracting even as much as
our attention," Francis was quoted by the Radio Vaticana
as saying.
"Unfortunately, they are part of the too many innocent people who have no
weight on world opinion," the pope lamented.
Christians killed, as thousands flee continuing Islamist violence
May 6, 2016
World Watch Monitor
Islamist militants are suspected to have killed between 20 and 40 villagers in
the eastern extremes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to news
reports and a World Watch Monitor source.
Attackers carried machetes and axes into a village in North Kivu province, in
eastern DRC, late in the evening on 3 May.
“Between 20:00 and 22:00, the enemy managed to get past army positions and kill
peaceful residents in their homes, slashing their throats,” local administrator
Bernard Amisi Kalonda told Agence France-Presse. “The 16 bodies are in front of me,
killed by machete or axe.”
One local source later told World Watch Monitor on 6 May that as many as 34 may
have died; another source quoted 38, including, he said, two elders and their
wives of the CECA 20 (Communaute Evangelique au
Centre de l’Afrique) Church.
A local Christian missionary told World Watch Monitor on 4 May that thousands
of people have fled the area.
“It was eerie; hundreds of houses abandoned and thousands of people displaced,” the missionary said. “I saw four coffins and a
funeral or two on the road. I saw people carrying their mattresses and things
in cars, on motorcycles, on foot.
“Hundreds of homes along the road are abandoned. Where there was thriving
community, there is now a ghost town.”
World Watch Monitor is withholding the missionary’s
name for security reasons.
Gen. Jean Baillaud, the military chief of the UN’s
20,000-soldier force in the DR Congo, confirmed at least 17 people had been
killed.
Local administrator Kalonda told AFP it is unknown if
the attack was carried out by Muslim Defense International, formerly known as
the Alliance of Democratic Forces. The 20-year-old alliance of Ugandan
militants was first linked with former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. It has long
been active in the eastern regions of neighbouring DR
Congo, and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians since 2014,
according to the UN.
The MDI has repeatedly attacked the majority-Christian population in eastern
DRC for years. Kidnapping and murder are common. It is alleged to have support
from the Islamic government of Sudan, an assertion made by the Uganda
government and backed by Western diplomatic sources. The group is accused of
waging a proxy war for Sudan against Uganda as retribution for Uganda’s support of secessionists who broke away to form
the nation of South Sudan in 2011.
The MDI is known to have attracted foreign recruits and to have forced
Christians to convert to Islam.
The local population in the related area is overwhelmingly Christian (95.8%)
and the impact on them has been immense. After this latest attack, World Watch
Monitor heard from a pastor in the area who said the people are terrified but
that while some contemplated fleeing again, others have opted to stay in the
hope that things will normalise soon.
In a letter released a year ago, the Bishops of the Province of Bukavu (eastern DRC) denounced a “climate of genocide” and
the passivity of the Congolese State and international community.
“Does the situation have to deteriorate even more before the international
community takes measures against jihadism?” asked the Bishops in May 2015,
according to whom “a strategy of forced displacement of populations is taking
place in order to gradually occupy the land and install outbreaks of religious
fundamentalism and terrorist training bases”, the Catholic news agency Fides
reported.
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