11 civilians killed in an attack by Ugandan rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kinshasa, February 9th (EFE). – At least 11 civilians were killed last night in an attack carried out by Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They also reported to Efe today. Civil society activists and the military.

The attack took place in the town of Mwenda in Beni, North Kivu.

“The death toll of 11 civilians is still temporary,” Kizito Ben Hangu, a civil society leader in Beni, told Efe by phone, and confirmed that the attackers “also looted the city and seized live goods, including goats.”

According to this activist, “These jihadists were definitely on a supply mission. They took some food and left with many young men from this town.”

The rebel incursion caused residents to flee to a forest in the town of Mwenda, which was practically deserted and where Congolese army forces were displaced.

“We are in and around Mwenda to locate these attackers,” Army spokesman Captain Mac Hazzokai told Evie in a phone conversation.

This town was already a victim of recent ADF attacks, as it suffered another incursion on Sunday that killed five civilians, although the armed forces confirmed they had increased pressure on the rebels.

The Allied Democratic Forces began their violent campaign in 1996 in western Uganda as a political response to the regime of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who accused him of going against Muslims, but the army forced them to withdraw to the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

From there they carry out incursions into Congolese territory, which in the past year have increased in frequency and brutality.

Their program is pervasive, bypassing the possibility of a link with the jihadist Islamic State (IS) and a “modus operandi” consisting of attack and hide thanks to a mountainous geography, allowing them to escape Congolese army and UN operations. Mission on Earth (MONUSCO).

It is noteworthy that the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been mired in a conflict for years, fueled by rebel militias and attacks by regular army soldiers, despite the presence of the United Nations peacekeeping force, which includes more than 15 thousand soldiers, spread in the country. EFE

py / pa / psh

| K: POL: Politics and Conflict |

| Q: DCG: en-ES: 16003002: Unrest and Conflict: Civil Unrest: Insurgencies |

| P: COD |

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