Suspected Islamist rebels kill 16 in Democratic Republic of Congo

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Suspected Islamist rebels kill 16 in Democratic Republic of Congo

BENI, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct 21 Reuters - Suspected Islamist militants killed 16 people and burned down houses late on Wednesday in a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a witness and a civil society leader said.

An army spokesman in the area said early on Thursday that a combat patrol unit had clashed with the rebels, but gave no further details.

We were having a drink with friends and all of a sudden we heard gunshots. Our first instinct was to flee. This morning we found 16 bodies, the victims including my eldest son, said Luc Kakule Messo, a resident of the village of Beni, about 40 kilometers 25 miles east of Kalembo.

Mumbere Meleki Mulala, coordinator of a local human rights network, confirmed the death toll and blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces ADF, a Ugandan armed group active in the region.

The ADF has operated in the dense forests near the Ugandan border for more than three decades and began killing civilians in large numbers in 2014. In late 2019 the Congo army launched a large-scale operation against them, sparking a violent backlash.

It is frustrating and it is regrettable because every day we count dead, said Mulala.

The government declared a state of siege in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri in May that was meant to halt the bloodshed, but civilian security has continued to deteriorate since, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, a research group affiliated with New York-based Human Rights Watch.