Six killed, 24 kidnapped in Beni, North Kivu

Six people were killed and 24 others abducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s troubled east, local officials said Saturday after an attack blamed on the notorious ADF militia.

The violence happened in Beni, North Kivu province, territorial administrator Donat Kibwana said.

Twenty four civilians, including a reporter with a community radio station, were abducted in the course of the overnight attack, local sources said.

The Allied Democratic Forces, ADF, is blamed for slaughtering around 800 civilians over the past year in the province which borders Uganda.

The United Nations said in July the group’s attacks could constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The ADF, which originated in the 1990s as an Ugandan Muslim rebel group, is one of more than 100 militias that plague the eastern provinces of the vast country.

The group makes money notably through wood trafficking and DR Congo officials suspect some military are complicit in its violent raids.

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.

[AFP]