An attack by rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group has killed 15 people in the conflict-riven east of DR Congo, sources told AFP on Wednesday.
The incursion by the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) took place on Tuesday in the village of Masau on the border between Beni territory in North Kivu province and Mambasa territory in Ituri province, the sources said.
“Fifteen bodies were brought on Wednesday to the morgue in the (nearby) commune of Mangina,” one witness told AFP.
“The families come to identify the bodies, it’s total desolation,” the witness added.
Mayor of Mangina Rocky Muvunga said a total of 14 people died in the attack, while a civil society leader said a dozen bodies had been found, three of which were women and nine men.
“There are also people who have disappeared,” the civil society leader added, saying that homes and motorcycles were also damaged by the assailants.
The ADF, originally mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, has established a presence over the past three decades in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing thousands of civilians.
It pledged allegiance in 2019 to the Islamic State group, which portrays it as its central African branch.
Since the end of 2021, the Congolese and Ugandan armies have conducted joint operations against the ADF in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri but have so far failed to stop the deadly attacks on civilians.
The east of the country has been plagued by violence by armed groups for decades.
The Rwanda-back M23 (March 23 Movement) resumed its armed campaign in the region at the end of 2021, seizing swathes of territory in North Kivu, as intensified fighting continues to displace tens of thousands of people.