Between ten and 15 civilians were killed in weekend attacks in the Beni region in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in new attacks blamed on ADF rebels, local sources said on Sunday.
"It is urgent that the authorities put an end to this barbarity," Pepin Kavota, a civil society leader in Beni, a town in the north of North Kivu province particularly hit by Allied Democratic Forces violence, told AFP.
Kavota added that most of the victims were decapitated.
"For a month, our neighbourhood has been the victim of repeated ADF attacks," Antoine Kambale, an official in the Mulekera town northwest of Beni, told AFP.
Looting
Kambale said 14 civilians were killed on Friday in several places in the neighbourhood. He added that a new attack on Saturday night left two more people dead – a woman and a police officer.
He said the assailants attacked and set fire to a health centre from which they looted medical supplies in an incident similar to one that happened two weeks ago in another Beni commune, Mangina. Ten people were killed in the attack.
Mulekera Mayor Colonel Ngongo Mayanga gave a provisional death toll from the latest attacks at more than ten civilians.
"For now, we are at the stage of collecting bodies," he said, adding that "the army are deploying in large numbers to counter the threat."
Joint military operation
The ADF, originally in Uganda, has established a presence over the three decades in eastern DRC, killing thousands of civilians.
The group is also accused of recent attacks on Ugandan soil. At the end of 2021, Kampala and Kinshasa launched a joint military operation against them in a so far unsuccessful attempt to defeat the group.
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