According to CGTN Africa, on 13 November the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group attacked a hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The same source also reports the words of an army spokesman, saying that “the ADF attacked a health center to stock up on medical supplies, then set fire to the hospital” in the eastern town of Beni in the North Kivu province.

During this attack, the ADF killed five civilians, before the army arrived and managed to kill eight of the armed group members in clashes in the village of Kisunga to the south. Among the civilian victims, there was also a hospital guard who was ill and a patient there. According to a local civil society leader, the ADF also took two male nurses hostage.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), originally a coalition of Ugandan armed groups opposed to the regime of the President Yoweri Museveni, were established in eastern Congo in 1995, where they have taken root. Nowadays it is the deadliest of scores of armed groups in the east of the country and, since 2019, the United States has formally linked its attacks to the so-called Islamic State (IS). North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province are actually subject to regular attacks and killings by ADF, as for example demonstrated by the last attack on 4 November in the Beni territory according to AfricanNews. These provinces have been under a “state of siege” since May, in a bid to step up a military offensive against the rebels.

To read more, please visit:

https://africa.cgtn.com/2021/11/13/rebels-kill-five-in-dr-congo-hospital-attack/

https://www.africanews.com/2021/11/04/drc-three-civilians-and-four-adf-rebels-killed-in-beni/

https://www.persecution.org/2021/11/14/jihadists-attack-hospital-dr-congo-kill-five-abduct-two/

Author: Jasmina Saric