Islamic State-linked militants have killed 89 civilians in a series of attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lubero territory, the U.N. peacekeeping mission MONUSCO said on Friday.
Fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) carried out the raids in several localities in North Kivu province between Nov. 13 and Nov. 19, MONUSCO said in a statement. The dead included at least 20 women and an undetermined number of children.
In one incident, ADF gunmen stormed a Catholic Church-run health centre in Byambwe, killing at least 17 people, including women seeking maternity care, and setting fire to four wards housing patients, the mission said.
The statement said the rebels also abducted civilians and looted medical supplies.
“MONUSCO urges the Congolese authorities to promptly initiate independent and credible investigations to identify the perpetrators and accomplices of these massacres and bring them to justice,” it added.
Last month, local officials told Reuters that suspected ADF fighters killed 19 civilians in an overnight assault on the village of Mukondo in North Kivu.
In September, the group claimed responsibility for one of its deadliest recent attacks, which left more than 60 civilians dead at a funeral in eastern Congo.
The ADF began as an insurgency in Uganda but has operated from the forests of neighbouring Congo since the late 1990s. It is recognised by Islamic State as an affiliate, and has been the target of joint operations by Congolese and Ugandan forces, though its attacks have continued.
Other areas of North Kivu are controlled by M23 rebels, who are backed by Rwanda and mounted a rapid advance earlier this year.
Mediators including the United States and Qatar are seeking a settlement to that conflict, which Washington hopes will help unlock Western investment in Congo’s mining sector.