Six civilians killed and more than 120 kidnapped in an attack blamed on the ADF in eastern DRC

11 (EUROPE PRESS)

At least six people, including four children, have died and more than 120 have been kidnapped in an attack carried out by suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group in Ituri province, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC).

The head of Banyali-Tchabi, Babanilawo Étienne, has detailed in statements to the Congolese news portal 7sur7 that the assailants broke into the towns of Banyali Tchabi and Bahema Mitego in incidents that started on Saturday night.

In the town of Malulu, in Bahema-Mitego, the attackers burned down 280 houses and kidnapped 40 civilians, Étienne recounted, after which they attacked Banyali-Tchabi. In this town, five people died burned inside their home.

In total there are more than 120 civilians kidnapped by the attackers, according to local sources quoted by Radio France Internationale.

Étienne has asked the population to remain alert and has lamented “the absence of members of the security forces in the area”. “They were on patrol in the forests to which the rebels had withdrawn following the arrival of elements of the DRC and Ugandan armies,” he explained.

Congolese military sources have indicated that this could be the ADF’s response to the joint military operations of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Ituri, in North Kivu. Harassed by these movements, some combatants would have begun looting towns in the area to obtain supplies.

Abductees are often used to transport supplies stolen in these types of raids. The youngest are enlisted as child soldiers, and the girls are used as sex slaves.

The ADF, a Ugandan group created in the 1990s, especially active in eastern DRC and accused of the killing of hundreds of civilians in this area of ​​the country, could be trying to operate again in Uganda, from where it withdrew in 2003. after a series of military operations that drastically reduced its ability to carry out attacks in the country.

The ADF 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 banner he has been acting ever since. The DRC and Uganda signed a defense agreement in December to carry out joint operations in eastern DRC.