GOMA, Congo (AP) — Rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group killed over 30 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said Thursday.
Fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, killed the civilians Wednesday night in the village of Bafwakoa in the east of the country bordering Uganda. The ADF is a Ugandan Islamist group with ties to IS that operates on both sides of the porous border.
The attack comes as eastern Congo may see an end to its ongoing war with M23, a separate rebel group which is backed by Rwanda, another of Congo’s neighbors.
“It was yesterday, starting at 7 p.m., that the ADF arrived and began operating. They set fire to houses in the village and also killed about 32 people,” said Samuel Banapia, a member of civil society in the area, when contacted by telephone.
Local officials said at least 30 people were killed with machetes and that several people remain missing, with at least two people taken hostage.
The army has struggled to contain the group as it battles several other rebel groups in the east, the most prominent one being the Rwandan-backed M23 which last year seized several major cities in the east.
“The ADF avoids direct combat with the army and all its partners; that’s why they attack the population in a way that sabotages peace efforts and acts of revenge against the population, thus reprisals against our people,” said Lt. Jules Ngongo, a spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Ituri, reached by telephone.
The number of ADF fighters in Congo is unclear, but they are a significant presence in the region and regularly attack civilians. The group originated in the late 1990s in neighboring Uganda and became affiliated with IS in 2019. Muslims make up about 10% of the Congolese population, most of them in the east.
In recent years, attacks by the ADF have intensified near Congo’s border with Uganda and spread toward Goma, eastern Congo’s main city, as well as the neighboring Ituri province. Last year, the ADF killed 66 people and abducted several more in a neighboring area.
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