Utter chaos and disaster have taken hold of the village of Bulongo, situated in eastern DRC. According to the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), on March 14th, the Ugandan militant group, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), raided the village. By Monday morning, on March 15th, the KST confirmed via Twitter that throughout the raid, at least 15 residents of Bulongo had been massacred by militants of the ADF with axes and machetes.
Paul Sakata, a survivor of the raid, informed Reuters that the attack appeared to have been premeditated. The culprits took advantage of the time and stormy weather to carry out the attack, with Sakata stating that the downpour made it nearly impossible to see or hear the militants until it was too late. Sadly, there weren't any security forces present or nearby that could have prevented the raid. It is one of the many attacks that highlight the continued instability within the region, which repeatedly unfolds into accounts of bloodshed.
Despite failing to claim responsibility for the raid, government officials and media outlets have blamed the attack on the ADF. The group established their operations in the late 1990s in eastern DRC. However, attacks of this nature only began in 2019 as retaliation against operations carried out by the Congolese military. The United Nations reported that in 2020, the ADF were responsible for the murders of 850 people in DRC, creating huge concern within the international community and even leading to the US declaring them an international terrorist organisation due to alleged links with Islamic State (IS)
It is valid to label the ones responsible, yet the international community should "label" less and act more. After all, it is innocent women and children who most often face the severe ramifications of these attacks.
To learn more, please read:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/15/at-least-a-dozen-killed-in-easter-dr-congo-attack
https://www.trtworld.com/africa/many-dead-in-suspected-adf-militia-attack-in-east-drc-45015
Author: Sergio Gomez; Editor: Xavier Atkins
