Islamic State-aligned rebels kill 66 civilians in eastern Congo

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) – Rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group killed 66 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said Saturday.

Fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which has ties to IS, killed civilians in the area of Irumu in the east of the country bordering Uganda. 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.

Jean Tobie Okala, the spokesperson for the United Nations mission in Ituri in eastern Congo, called the attack a “bloodbath.”

“Around 30 civilians were killed between Thursday and Friday, July 11, in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom, Irumu territory, in Ituri,” said Okala in a statement to the Associated Press. “Based on information from civil society, the death toll has risen from 31 to 66 civilians killed.”

The ADF is a Ugandan Islamist group that operates on both sides of the porous border.

All the victims, including women, were killed with machetes, said the president of a local civil society, Marcel Paluku. The number of people taken hostage is unknown.

The attack is suspected to be in response to an escalating bombing campaign by joint Congolese and Ugandan forces that started on Sunday.

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 Allied Democratic Forces have intensified near Congo’s border with Uganda and spread towards Goma, eastern Congo’s main city, as well as the neighboring Ituri province. Rights groups and the United Nations have accused the ADF of killing hundreds of people and abducting even more, including a significant number of children.

In December, the ADF killed at least 10 people and abducted several more in another village in North Kivu.