An overnight attack on the village of Mukondi in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has left at least 36 people dead. The village is located about 30km south of the city of Beni in North Kivu province, an area that has been plagued with rebel activity. The assailants are believed to be members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan armed group based in eastern DRC that has pledged allegiance to ISIS and frequently carries out deadly raids on villages. The ADF has been accused of a string of bomb attacks and civilian massacres, and according to the Catholic Church in the country, it has killed about 6,000 civilians since 2013. The DRC government declared a state of siege in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province in 2021 to try to stem the violence in the country’s vast mineral-rich east, but the killings and rebel activity have not shown any sign of abating.
The head of a local civil society group, Mumbere Limbadu Arsene, gave a provisional death toll of 44, including women, children, and the elderly, and said several villagers were still missing. “The modus operandi suggests it was the ADF because no bullets were fired,” he told Reuters news agency via telephone, adding that some victims died trapped in their homes after attackers set them ablaze. The ADF often carries out attacks using machetes and hatchets.
Provincial governor Carly Nzanzu Kasivita said on Twitter that at least 36 people had been killed in the attack, which began on Wednesday evening. A local army spokesperson, Antony Mwalushayi, confirmed there had been an attack but did not give a death toll. Kakuke Kilalo Emmanuel, a resident of the nearby village of Kalunguta, said he went to Mukondi on Wednesday but turned back after he saw people in a state of panic as the attack was unfolding. Many Kalunguta residents have fled out of fear for their safety.
The ADF was formed in 1995 by a coalition of rebel forces – including the Uganda Muslim Liberation Army and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda – to fight against the Yoweri Museveni administration. It is among the most violent groups in the DRC and has been blamed for more than 1,200 deaths in the Beni area alone since 2017 by US-based monitor the Kivu Security Tracker.
The DRC has been plagued by violence for decades, with numerous armed groups vying for control over its vast mineral wealth. The country has also been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with health officials warning that a surge in cases could overwhelm its already fragile healthcare system. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the DRC is at risk of a resurgence of Ebola after a new case was reported in February. The country has experienced several outbreaks of the virus in recent years, with the most recent one ending in November 2020 after claiming over 2,200 lives.