Democratic Republic of Congo

  • May- 2020 -
    27 May
    AfricaSoldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) prepare to escort health workers attached to ebola response programs on May 18, 2019 in Butembo, north of Kivu

    ADF Militia Kills Dozens in Eastern DR Congo

    Dozens of civilians have been killed in eastern DR Congo in the latest of a string of massacres by the notorious ADF militia, a UN source and a local NGO told AFP on Wednesday. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have killed hundreds in the region since late 2019, in apparent retaliation for a military offensive against their bases. The UN source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 22 people were killed in two attacks on Monday and Tuesday in the south of Ituri province, near the border with North Kivu province. At least 16 others were killed last Friday and on Sunday, the source said. A local NGO called Cepadho said in a statement that “at least 40 civilians (were) massacred” on Monday and Tuesday in the territory of Irumu in southern Ituri. A separate source, a monitoring group called the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), said the bodies of 17 civilians had been found in Makutano, in Irumu, on Monday and Tuesday. KST said the number of massacres in eastern DRC was “increasing sharply.” The group said that since May 7 it had recorded the deaths of 50 civilians, attributed to the ADF, in the North Kivu area of Beni …

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  • 27 May
    AfricaMinusca peacekeepers in Bambari

    Nine Militia Fighters Arrested in Central African Republic Killings

    Nine fighters from an armed group that launched a week-long attack last week in south-eastern Central African Republic have been arrested. The assailants belong to a branch of the CAR’s biggest armed group, the Unity for Peace in Central Africa (UPC), the country’s special criminal court said in a statement on Monday. The court is responsible for trying cases of serious human rights violations in the country, which has been ravaged by conflict for more than 20 years. The UPC has committed “widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population,” the court said. During the attacks on the town of Obo last week, government forces backed by U.N. troops killed around 10 fighters from the rebel militia and captured others, a government spokesman had told AFP. Led by a mercenary named Ali Darassa, the UPC has been campaigning for months to extend its grip in the southeast, at the crossroads of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. The UPC is one of myriad armed groups that have controlled most of the CAR since the country plunged into violence in 2013. A few months away from high-risk presidential elections due in December, the CAR continues to be plagued by militia …

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  • 25 May
    AfricaDemocratic Republic of Congo soldiers

    Nine Killed in Eastern DR Congo Attack

    Nine civilians were killed on Sunday in the eastern DR Congo region of Beni in another attack blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia, according to local sources. The attackers fled after a gunfight with army troops, according to Anthony Mualushayi, a regional army spokesman. The fighters “burned down some houses” and people have fled, said Donat Kibwana, the region’s administrator, adding that there were “some wounded on the military side.” Local official Bozi Sindiwako told AFP that two women and seven men were killed. The ADF is accused of killing more than 400 civilians in six months in retaliation for a military offensive launched in October against their bases. More than 1,000 civilians have died in attacks blamed on the ADF in the Beni region since October 2014. They often target farmers returning from the fields or at home in their villages at night. The mainly Muslim movement originated in neighboring Uganda, opposed to the rule of President Yoweri Museveni. In 1995 they crossed the border into DR Congo, which became its base of operations. “Barbaric acts” are being committed by militiamen in Beni and elsewhere in eastern DR Congo, the government said at a cabinet meeting on Friday. …

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  • 22 May
    AfricaSoldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) prepare to escort health workers attached to ebola response programs on May 18, 2019 in Butembo, north of Kivu

    Coronavirus Fails to Halt Conflict in DR Congo’s Powder-Keg East

    Coronavirus has swiftly gained status as the world’s No. 1 threat but in eastern DR Congo, one of Africa’s most volatile regions, militia killings and ethnic violence are an older and — for now — far greater source of dread. Some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) distant from the capital Kinshasa, this beautiful region bordering Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi has been a notorious flashpoint since the Congo Wars of the 1990s. “The COVID-19 crisis must not make us forget the atrocities which are taking place in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo,” 2018 Nobel peace laureate Denis Mukwege said on Tuesday. In the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, “civilians are being massacred,” he said. “In South Kivu, Rwandan and Burundian armies are battling armed groups in the high plateaus of Minembwe, destroying everything in their wake,” Mukwege said. “And in Tanganyika, the Zambians who had until now had good neighborly relations with DR Congo… recently invaded our territory.” Mukwege co-won the coveted prize for his treatment in helping women raped by armed rebels in South Kivu. The Kivu Security Tracker, an NGO which documents bloodshed in the two Kivu provinces, said March was one of the least violent months it …

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  • Apr- 2020 -
    7 April
    AfricaThe Defense Post

    DR Congo: Attack blamed on ADF kills 6 near Beni

    Five men and a child were killed in an attack blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces militia near the DR Congo city of Beni, cut off because of the coronavirus pandemic

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  • Feb- 2020 -
    13 February
    AfricaDemocratic Republic of Congo soldiers

    DR Congo forces captured 40 ADF fighters near Makeke, UN says

    The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo captured 40 Allied Democratic Forces fighters in a joint operation with the UN near Makeke

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  • Jan- 2020 -
    22 January
    AfricaThe Defense Post

    DR Congo civilians killed near Beni in attack blamed on ADF

    Six civilians were killed in an attack in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo blamed on the ADF, the first assault this year in an area that has suffered multiple massacres

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  • Dec- 2019 -
    16 December
    AfricaThe Defense Post

    ADF blamed for weekend DR Congo attacks that killed 32

    At least 32 people were killed in eastern DR Congo over the weekend, where ADF attacks on civilians have sparked protests against UN peacekeepers

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  • 8 December
    AfricaUN MONUSCO peacekeeper in Democratic Republic of Congo

    UN DR Congo peacekeeping force repels attack on Biakato base

    UN peacekeeping forces have managed to thwart an attempted attack on one of their bases in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO said

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  • Nov- 2019 -
    27 November
    AfricaUN MONUSCO peacekeeper in Democratic Republic of Congo

    UN investigating whether DR Congo peacekeeper killed protester in Beni

    The UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo said it was launching a probe after gaining evidence that one of its troops had killed a protester

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