The Congolese Army and a local human rights group said on Sunday that suspected Islamist militants killed close to 20 people in attacks on two villages in eastern Congo over the weekend.
“Islamic militants belonging to Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed residents and burned down houses in Kandoyi and Bandiboli villages in Ituri province late on Friday and early on Saturday”, said Christophe Munyanderu, coordinator of the local group Convention for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH).
The Congolese army spokesperson in Ituri, Jules Ngongo, confirmed that 20 people had been killed, and added that Congolese forces were pursuing the assailants.
“It’s too hard for me – when I saw the bodies, their throats had been cut,” said Alice Kyanga speaking to multinational news agency Reuters. Her parents were among those killed at their homes on Saturday.
The ADF is a Ugandan militia that moved to eastern Congo in the 1990s. The group was responsible for 1,050 violent deaths in 2021, up from 599 in 2020, according to data from Kivu Security Tracker, which maps and documents violence in the area.
U.N. experts had said in June that security situation had deteriorated in Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu province after they were brought under military rule by the government last year.
In response to rising militant attacks including repeated massacres by the ADF, the Congolese government declared a state of siege in the provinces in April 2021. The ADF is suspected to have links with the Islamic State.
After ADF allegedly carried out a string of bombings in Ugandan capital Kampala, the country sent 1700 troops to help the beleaguered Congolese government fight the insurgents.
