More than 15 people die in a new attack carried out by alleged members of the ADF armed group

30 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least 17 people were killed in an attack carried out on Sunday by suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group, linked to Islamic State, against three villages located in Ituri province, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). .

Civil society sources have detailed in statements to the Congolese news portal 7sur7 that the attackers broke into three towns in the territory of Irumu and “executed civilians with bladed weapons and firearms, mainly in Manyali.”

The general secretary of civil society in Irumu, Dieudonné Malangayi, has stated that “elements of the security forces killed two rebels and recovered a lot of ammunition” in Bandimbese after a confrontation broke out after the aforementioned attacks.

“We ask elements of the Armed Forces to launch an offensive against the enemy. At the moment, the ADF are in many points in the Walese Vonjuntu area. They must be located quickly so that the population can carry out their activities calmly” , has underlined.

The incident took place a week after the death of 23 people in an attack on the town of Makungwe, whose responsibility was claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), to which the ADF swore allegiance.

The ADF, a Ugandan group created in the 1990s, has been accused of the killing of hundreds of civilians in this part of the country. The group suffered a split in 2019 after Musa Baluku –sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States– swore allegiance to the jihadist group, under whose banner he has operated ever since.