Bunia – At least 10 civilians have been killed by rebels in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local sources said on Wednesday, criticising joint Congolese and Ugandan security operations in the region.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – which the Islamic State group claims as its Central African offshoot – is accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bombings in Uganda.
The 10, two women and eight men, were killed on Tuesday during an incursion by ADF fighters into Ndalya village in the south of Ituri province, Christophe Munyanderu, head of the CRDH rights organisation told AFP.
Another source put the death toll at 14.
The attackers also torched two houses.
Munyanderu said that on Wednesday morning a Congolese soldier was wounded after stepping on an improvised bomb placed near strategic Highway 4 which ADF fighters had approached, targeting surrounding villages.
“We regret the way the Congolese government is handling the ADF situation,” the activist said.
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He expressed surprise that the rebels were able to operate even though “they are well identified and their positions” known.
The ADF is accused of having massacred thousands of civilians in the DRC and carrying out attacks in Uganda, most recently in the capital Kampala in October and November 2021.
On Tuesday, 11 ADF fighters were killed in Uganda after crossing the border from the DRC, according to the Ugandan army.
Since November 2021, the Congolese army and the Ugandan army have been conducting joint operations to try to counter them.
Munyanderu said the operations had produced “no positive results that the civilian population expected”.
After a few weeks of calm, the killings have resumed, said Dieudonne Malangai, a civil society activist in the Walese Vonkutu area, where Ndalya is located.
“We regret that the joint operations between the (armies) never took place in our chiefdom, yet the Ugandan soldiers are right next to Boga and Tchabi,” he said.
“Ndalya is not our zone of responsibility, our troops are not yet deployed on Highway 4,” Lieutenant Colonel Mak Hazukay, spokesman for the joint operations, told AFP.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@bulapat1900
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