Islamic State claims responsibility for several attacks in DRC

March 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The jihadist group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for three attacks carried out on Tuesday in the North Kivu region, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Islamic State has claimed credit for a bloody week of attacks on ‘Christian’ civilians in DRC, with three claims for significant attacks on villages in North Kivu from March 8-12,” said Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence. Group, an organization specialized in monitoring terrorist groups.

According to the terrorist group, these attacks have claimed the lives of 85 people, while local authorities had reported the death of 27 victims.

Katz added that at least two thirds of the attacks carried out by the Islamic State in the Congolese territory so far this year have been Christian victims. These attacks are characterized by being armed assaults that usually involve executions and burning of infrastructures and assets.

At the beginning of March, the United States offered a reward of five million dollars (about 4.7 million euros) for information that would allow the arrest of the leader of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group, Musa Baluku, who has sworn allegiance to the State. Islamic and is behind hundreds of deaths in recent years in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The ADF, created in Uganda in the 1990s, suffered a split in 2019 after Musa Baluku –sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States– swore allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), under whose flag has been active since then.

The group, especially active in the eastern DRC, may be trying to resume operations in Uganda, from which it withdrew in 2003 after a series of military operations that drastically reduced its ability to carry out attacks in the country. ISCA has claimed several attacks on Ugandan territory in recent months.