According to survivors and the Convention for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH), an organization that monitors security in the region, the rebels attacked the area on Sunday night emerging from the nearby hill identified as Israel and started shooting at locals, killing 17. They also say that many were arrested and taken hostage.
Seven people
were shot dead during a fresh attack by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels
in the forest of Idohu village in Irumu, Ituri Province, Eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to
survivors and the Convention for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH), an
organization that monitors security in the region, the rebels attacked the area
on Sunday night emerging from the nearby hill identified as Israel and started
shooting at locals, killing 17. They also say that many were arrested and taken
hostage.
The
organization and survivors indicate that locals claim to have seen the bodies
of seventeen people, including five pygmies killed by the rebels. Thirteen
other people are still in the hands of the ADF.
Dieudonné
Malangayi, a civil society coordinator in the area says that on Tuesday
evening, a dozen traumatized victims arrived in Idohu, 30 kilometers from
Komanda after escaping from the rebels. Among the surviving victims included
children. He says that five other victims who have managed to escape
arrived on Wednesday in Takumanda.
ADF rebels
have continued to carry out surprise attacks against locals despite the
presence of FARDC and UPDF in the area to combat its operations since November
30, 2021. On December 22, 2021, the rebels shot a truck that was transporting
food between Makumo and Lukaya in the Bangole. The truck was heading to Biakato
in the territory of Mambasa (Ituri) from North Kivu. In the same month
16, the rebels attacked Mahu village, the Bangole group in Mambasa territory in
Ituri province, and burnt seven tons of Cocoa that was stored in Kivu
agricultural trading company. The rebels also killed five people
during the attack.
Joint
security operations are also registering progress towards the fight against the
rebels. On December 26, 2021, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, spokesperson of the
FARDC in Ituri Province announced that seven rebels were on that day killed in
the village of Bandindese, 18 kilometers from Komanda in the Irumu territory.
Two AK 47 guns were also recovered from the rebels.
In the same
month, combined UPDF Air Force and artillery shelled Kambi Ya Yua, Tondoli, Belu1,
and Belu2 in North Kivu province in Virunga and Ituri impenetrable forests of
Eastern DRC, according to Major General Muhanga Kayanja, the overall commander
of operation shujaa.
The ADF has
for several years operated in the volatile North Kivu which borders other provinces
including Ituri to the North and South Kivu to the South and has been a
battleground for a number of rival armed ethnic groups since 1998. The province
consists of three cities including; Goma, Butembo, and Beni as well as six
territories--Beni, Lubero, Masisi, Rutshuru.
ADF has been
blamed for the recent attacks in Kampala that leftover seven people dead. It
is also being blamed for the Christmas day attack at InBox restaurant-bar,
located on Boulevard Nyamwisi, Beni city, eastern DR Congo that left eight
people dead and 20 injured.
