At least 46 killed in an attack by Ugandan rebels in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Local authorities reported that at least 46 people were killed in Irumu County, in the northeastern province of Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following an attack attributed to Ugandan rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces.

The attack took place on Thursday, and according to local civil society sources reported by Actualité, the Congolese digital news agency, among the dead civilians were women and children.

“We have been alerted to an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces in Abombe, at the headquarters of Wallis Funcotto. Unfortunately, many pygmies have been killed. The latest information is 46 dead,” he said late yesterday in statements to the same media. Interior Minister Adio Gedi.

According to him, the attackers are members of the ADF-NALU Militia, a subgroup that responds to the English acronym of the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda that was created in the mid-1990s as a resistance to Ugandan President Yoweri. Museveni.

“According to the wounded and survivors, the death toll was greater,” Gedi said, stressing that it was a temporary number.

Almost all of the dead are dwarves from the headquarters of Wallisi Funcotto, near Northeast Kivu province where FARDC has been fighting ADF rebels for years.

The Allied Democratic Forces began their violent campaign in 1996 in western Uganda as a political response to the Museveni regime, but the army forced its withdrawal on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They are carrying out incursions from the parties into Congolese territory, where in addition to attacks they carry out acts of pillaging to obtain food.

The agenda of their interests is pervasive, beyond the potential link with the jihadist Islamic State group and the “modus operandi” of guerrilla warfare that takes advantage of the mountainous geography, allowing them to escape the military and mission operations. Country Stabilization Program (MONUSCO).

The northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been mired in armed conflict for decades, fueled by nearly a hundred rebel militias and unpunished army attacks, all under the auspices of the United Nations peacekeeping force, which has around 18,000 blue helmets scattered across the country.