Suspected rebels have left at least 10 people dead in a series of attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local sources said Monday, while the army reported killing 22 insurgents over the week.
The feared Armed Democratic Forces (ADF) faction was believed to have carried out the assault on Saturday and Sunday in the volatile region.
“We discovered eight bodies of civilians killed by these ADF, one was burned in his home,” on Sunday night at Ndimo village in Ituri province, local civil-society leader Dieudonne Malangay told AFP.
He added that on Saturday, ADF combatants had also killed two civilians in the neighboring village of Otmaber, set ablaze 10 houses in the area and torched two vehicles on national route 4.
The army spokesman for Ituri, lieutenant Jules Ngongo, did not answer reporters about the number of civilians killed in the latest attacks.
However, he said the armed forces “control the security and operational situation,” in the area.
“Twenty-two ADF terrorist elements” had been killed and soldiers were still carrying out search operations, he added.
The ADF — which the Islamic State group claims as its Central African offshoot — is among the most violent of the more than 120 militias that roam eastern Congo.
It has been accused of massacring Congolese civilians as well as staging attacks in neighboring Uganda.
The DRC and Uganda launched a joint offensive against the ADF in November 2021, but violence against civilians continues.
