The night between 3 and 4 November, the ADF killed three civilians, two women and a child, during an attack against a village in the Beni territory, in the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The regular army arrived in the village in the morning, leaving four rebels dead, bringing the death toll of the attack to seven. According to Captain Antony Mualushayi, the army spokesman, the aim of the attack was for ADF to take over food supplies in order to undermine the effort of the national army. Both the regions of Kivu and Ituri have been under a state of emergency since 6 May 2021, as a response to frequent attacks by armed groups in the area. According to the Kivu Security Tracker, only in the Beni area, more than 1.200 deaths have occurred since 2017.
Instability in DRC, especially in the eastern regions of Ituri, Kasai and Kivu, can be traced back to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which led to a massive refugee influx towards DRC. It was also a contributing factor to the formation of several armed groups originally from Rwanda in the eastern part of the country. The ADF, however, is a coalition of Ugandan armed groups that established themselves in the mountains of North Kivu. Since 2019, ISIS has begun to claim some ADF attacks, thus recognizing the armed group as the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP). As a result, the ADF was added to a list drafted by the US comprising terrorist groups affiliated with IS jihadists.
After the attack, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO) started closely monitoring the situation by establishing contacts with the provincial authorities in order to secure access to relevant information.
To read more, please visit:
https://www.africanews.com/2021/11/04/drc-three-civilians-and-four-adf-rebels-killed-in-beni/
https://guardian.ng/news/world/four-rebels-six-civilians-killed-in-east-dr-congo/
Author: Martina Apicella; Editor: Aleksandra Krol
