At Least Nine Lives Lost to ADF Rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Goma, Dec 2 (NationPress) A minimum of nine individuals were slain in an attack involving Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels overnight on Sunday in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as reported by military sources to Xinhua.
The rebels launched an assault on PK20, a village situated along the Mbau-Kamango road in Beni, eastern North Kivu province, the focal point of ongoing conflicts between the military and numerous armed factions, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous.
Several villagers were abducted and are currently unaccounted for.
Katuho Kinos, a local civil society figure, stated that at least 14 individuals lost their lives, a figure that may increase as search efforts are underway.
“Numerous homes have been set ablaze,” he informed local media. “At this moment, this is a preliminary evaluation.”
The ADF, established in the 1990s by various opposition groups in Uganda, faced defeat by the Ugandan military, yet its members have persisted in their activities in the eastern DRC. The ADF proclaimed its allegiance to the Islamic State in 2017.
Since late 2021, the Ugandan and DRC armed forces have initiated collaborative operations against ADF insurgents in eastern DRC, as reported by Xinhua news agency.
The DRC army's campaign against the ADF began in 2016 when government troops penetrated deep into the forests of the Beni territory to pursue the ADF rebels, who have also faced action from a specialized brigade composed of Tanzanian, Malawian, and South African peacekeepers.
In 2017, at least 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers lost their lives during an ADF assault on their base in Beni.
