Bunia – At least 25 farmers were killed in overnight attacks by fighters linked to the Islamic State group in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local and security sources told AFP on Monday.
“The victims had been bound and hacked with machetes,” said a humanitarian worker in the area, who reported seeing more than 20 bodies.
Eastern DRC has been ravaged by three decades of conflict, including recent offensives by the Rwanda-backed anti-government M23 group and the ADF, which was founded by former Ugandan rebels who pledged allegiance to IS in 2019.
The ADF attacks targeted farmers in their fields near the villages of Otmaber and Bwanasula, sources said.
“The victims are all farmers who had fields in the area,” Leon Undemutau Manzaleke, a local civil society leader, told AFP.
He gave a “provisional” death toll of 25, which was confirmed by local and security sources.
Local human-rights activist Christophe Munyanderu said “several” people had also been taken hostage.
Since 2021, the Ugandan army has been deployed in Ituri and the northern part of neighbouring North Kivu province to fight the ADF alongside Congolese forces.
But the joint operation has struggled to stop the violence.
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Source: AFP
