At least 30 people were shot or hacked to death by terrorists in northeastern DR Congo, according to local and UN sources.
Civil society members attributed the attack on Saturday in the province of Ituri on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group associated to the so-called Islamic State.
Acting head of the chiefdom of Walese Vonkutu Dieudonne Malangayi first stated that 14 people died, but later informed AFP that more remains had been discovered in the bush and that the death toll could grow even higher.
“The civilians who went to look for the bodies of the victims found 16 others in the bush, which makes 30 civilians massacred,” he said.
At least 30 people were killed in the attack, according to a UN official.
According to a bystander who assisted in the search for bodies, the deceased were mostly attacked with machetes or shot.
Augustin Muhindo Musavuli, a local elder who helped with the search, said he saw 17 bodies, most of whom were hacked to death with a machete but also shot. Some had their throats sliced, while others had their bowels removed.
“We went into the bush with young people, accompanied by soldiers,” he told AFP by telephone from Bunia.
“We transported the bodies on motobikes… Lots of people died.”
The ADF, which the US has designated as a terrorists organization, is the deadliest among a slew of armed militias roaming the mineral-rich eastern DR Congo.
North Kivu and Ituri provinces have been under siege since May, with the army and police displacing civilian authority in their war against armed groups.
Malangayi claimed that after being notified of insurgent movements in the area on Friday, the army did nothing.
“In the morning (on Saturday), ADF rebels entered and operated all day,” he claimed. He accused them of robbing people’s homes and shops, as well as murdering largely farmers.
Terrorists group
The ADF began as a rebel group in Uganda’s neighboring country in 1996, but is now known as the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province. Since 2013, it has been accused of killing thousands of people.
According to Malangayi, the bodies from Saturday’s incident were taken to local hospital morgues.
David Beyza Katabuka, head of the local Red Cross, said he could not send a team to bury the bodies.
“We fear for our security and we don’t have enough equipment to do the work,” he said.
In addition to ADF, Ituri has experienced intercommunal violence, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people between 1999 and 2003.
In 2003, a European peacekeeping force under French command intervened, but violence resurfaced in 2017 after several years of calm.
In late May, an attack on two villages in the region resulted in the deaths of more than 50 people in a single day.
MORE:
