A soldier of the Democratic Republic of Congo's armed forces holds his weapon during a security patrol around the Kiwanja airfield days after clashes with the M23 rebels in Rutshuru, 70 kilometers from the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 3, 2022. (Photo by Guerchom NDEBO / AFP)
Suspected rebels have killed at least nine people in twin attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said on Wednesday, in the latest violence to hit the turbulent region.
Fighters from the feared Armed Democratic Forces (ADF) group killed six civilians in an attack on the town of Beni in North Kivu province on Tuesday night, according to local civil-society leader Pepin Paluku Kavota.
He told reporters on Wednesday the militants targeted a district just a kilometre from army headquarters in the city of 400,000.
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The dead included a 15-year-old boy and a 90-year-old woman, said Kavota, who urged security forces “to redouble their efforts”.
The same night, militants also killed at least three people in an attack on a village in neighbouring Ituri province.
“This is a provisional number,” local civil-society figure Gaston Kandole told AFP.
The village also lies near a Congolese military base.
The ADF – which the Islamic State group claims as its Central African offshoot – is active in both North Kivu and Ituri.
The group is among the most violent of the more than 120 militias that roam eastern Congo, and has been accused of massacring Congolese civilians and carrying out terrorist attacks in neighbouring Uganda.
The DRC and Uganda launched a joint offensive against the ADF in November 2021 to crush the rebels, but violence against civilians continues.
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