sesame, congoAP —
Islamic State militants have killed at least 43 people in eastern Congo, officials said Thursday.
On Wednesday night, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) fighters killed civilians in the village of Bahwakoa. Islamist groups in Uganda operate on both sides of the porous border.
“They set fire to houses in the village,” Samuel Banapia, a civil society member in the area, said by phone.
The Congolese army said in a statement that 43 villages had been killed, while local authorities said the death toll was at least 56, with several missing and at least two taken hostage.
The Congolese army is struggling to contain the ADF as it engages several other rebel groups in the east. The most prominent is the Rwandan-backed M23, which took control of major cities in the east last year.
“The ADF avoids direct combat with the military and all its partners, which is why they attack the population in a way that disrupts peace efforts,” Lieutenant Jules Gongo, a spokesman for Congo’s Eastern Army, said by phone. He called the group’s attacks “an act of revenge against our people and, by extension, retaliation against our people.”
The number of ADF fighters in Congo is unknown, but they are a significant presence in the region and regularly attack civilians. The group originated in Uganda in the late 1990s and became affiliated with Islamic State in 2019. Muslims make up about 10% of Congo’s population, and most live in the east.
In recent years, ADF attacks have intensified near the border with Uganda and have spread to eastern Congo’s main city of Goma and neighboring Ituri province. Last year, the ADF killed 66 people in nearby areas and abducted several more.
