43 People Killed Over The Weekend In Eastern Congo

A rights group in DR Congo says that rebels with links to the Islamic State group have killed 43 people in the Eastern Congo over the weekend in a series of attacks carried out in response to a new military offensive in the area.

According to a Congolese human rights group known by its French acronym CEPADHO, the victims were shot by rebels from Allied Democratic Forces who went from door-to-door in some cases.

The president of the organization Omar  Kavotha said that the rebels have been trying to pit civilians against the army so that people demand military action to be stopped. Due to high rates of insecurity in the area, demonstrators protested late last month by setting fire to the town hall.

This weekend dated 13^th-15^th December 2019, has seen violence target in an area in eastern Congo that is at the heart of the Ebola epidemic which has killed more than 2,200 people since August 2018.

‘These attacks will certainly paralyze the Ebola response teams; the movement of the population becomes difficult to control.’ Said Dr. Pierre Celestin Adikey who coordinates the effort to control the disease in the Beni region.

He added that other armed groups in the area might also take advantage of the situation to carry out attacks of their own.

The latest attacks began on Friday 13^th Dec 2019 when the ADF rebels attacked Beni City killing six people. The militants later spread the violence to several communities surrounding Beni.

According to the human rights group, late Sunday the rebels went from door to door killing people in Kamango.

The Allied Democratic Forces or ADF originated in Uganda and has long been a threat in neighboring eastern Congo. Recently the Islamic State group has claimed that attacks carried out by the ADF rebels through the exact relationship between the two are not entirely clear.