Islamic State-backed rebels armed with machetes and hoes have killed at least 52 civilians in the Beni and Lubero areas of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent days, UN and local officials said.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels were taking revenge on civilians after suffering defeats by DRC forces, Lt Elongo Kyondwa Marx, a regional DRC army spokesperson, said.
“When they arrived they first woke the residents, gathered them in one place, tied them up with ropes and then began to massacre them with machetes and hoes,” Macaire Sivikunula, chief of Lubero's Bapere sector, told Reuters at the weekend.
About 30 civilians were killed in the village of Melia, said Alain Kiwewe, a military administrator for the Lubero territory.
“Among the victims were children and women whose throats were slit in their homes, while several houses were set on fire,” he said.
The UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (Monusco) condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the attacks by the ADF between August 9 and 16, the mission's spokesperson said on Monday.
The attacks killed at least 52 civilians, including eight women and two children, and the toll could rise as the search for victims continues, the spokesperson said.
The ADF is among several militias wrangling over land and resources in the DRC's mineral-rich east.
The DRC's army and its ally, Uganda, have intensified operations against the ADF in recent weeks.
In late July, ADF rebels killed 38 people in an attack on a church in eastern DRC.
Reuters
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