Armed Attacks in Congo's Ituri Province Leave at Least 49 Civilians Dead, More Missing
A series of armed attacks in the Mambasa territory of Ituri Province, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, between November 10 and 12 killed at least 49 civilians, left others missing and burned down many homes. Congolese sources blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group.
According to the Congolese account, gunmen attacked eight villages in the Mambasa area on November 10, killing at least 35 civilians and leaving 14 missing; on November 12 they attacked five more villages, killing at least 14 civilians and abducting others.
AFP, citing security and humanitarian sources, put this week's Mambasa toll at at least 44 dead; a humanitarian source said 47 bodies had been found, while local sources gave figures as high as 49, with the search for bodies still under way and the counts not yet reconciled.
It was the second wave of mass killings in the region within a week. On the night of November 5, ADF fighters attacked the village of Cantine-Aloya in the Beni territory of neighbouring North Kivu Province; the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization later put that toll at 66 dead, including three health workers, with three health facilities looted and burned. Radio France Internationale calculated that the ADF had killed at least 110 people in a week in the Ebola-hit region.
The ADF originated in Uganda, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019, and has long attacked civilians in North Kivu and Ituri. Congo's government has kept both provinces under a state of siege since late April 2021. Ituri and North Kivu are also at the centre of the current Ebola outbreak, and the attacks are severely disrupting the response.
(Source: AFP)
Source: AFP
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：联合国刚果（金）稳定特派团（MONUSCO）维和人员在伊图里省巡逻（资料图，非本次袭击现场）。照片 CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: MONUSCO peacekeepers on patrol in Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo (file photo, not the scene of these attacks). CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
