ADF kills dozens of civilians in DR Congo's Ituri province
Reported tolls from the Mambasa raids range from 22 to 49, and the attacks come as Congo's worst Ebola outbreak kills more than 5,400.
Fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces killed dozens of civilians in villages in Mambasa territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this week, with the reported death toll ranging from 22 to 49.
The raids ran from Monday to Thursday in Ituri province, according to Punch, which cited AFP and Congolese security and humanitarian sources. A security source put the toll at 44. A humanitarian source said 47 bodies had been found, and other local sources gave figures up to 49. The Rio Times, citing local authorities, reported at least 35 dead and 14 people missing. Ahram Online reported at least 22 killed.
Gabriel Tonge, a local official, said some victims were hacked to death with machetes and others were shot. "Some bodies are already in a state of decomposition," Punch quoted him as saying. A humanitarian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ADF fighters remained in the bush and had set ambushes.
The Mambasa killings followed an attack days earlier at Cantine-Aloya in neighbouring North Kivu province, about 100 kilometres away, where the group killed at least 66 civilians, among them three health workers, and burned three health facilities, Punch reported.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization's director general, said the region's chronic instability was "one of the greatest obstacles to the Ebola response in the DRC".
Congo's current Ebola outbreak, its 17th, was declared in May and was first detected in Ituri. Health ministry data published on Friday recorded 5,471 deaths from 11,197 cases, a mortality rate close to 50 percent. The country's worst previous outbreak killed about 2,300 people out of 3,500 cases between 2018 and 2020.
The ADF was formed from former Ugandan rebels and has carried out repeated massacres in North Kivu and Ituri. It pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019, and the group describes it as its Islamic State Central Africa Province.
Ugandan and Congolese troops have been sent to the region. Punch reported they have had no significant success, and The EastAfrican reported that a five-year military operation had failed to destroy the group.
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