AFRICA/DR CONGO - At least 44 people killed between New Year and the first days of January in North Kivu

Friday, 8 January 2021 massacres   jihadists   civil society  

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "A real carnage was carried out between 19 and 21, local time, on Monday 4 January 2021. It caused the massacre of at least 22 civilians, including 6 members of the same family, not to mention the missing persons and other material damage", denounces in a note sent to Agenzia Fides, CEPADHO (Study Center for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights), an NGO in North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The terrorist attack was perpetrated by Islamists of the ADF/MTM in the locality of Mwenda, in the territory of Beni in the province of North Kivu.
CEPADHO recalls that "on December 31, 2020, 22 other civilians were massacred in Tingwe and Kamungu ... thus transforming into tears the joy of the celebrations of January 1, 2021".
The Congolese NGO denounces the fact that "in the last 13 months at least 1,157 civilians have been massacred by the ADF/MTM in retaliation for the offensives launched against them by the Congolese armed forces (FARDC)". CEPADHO also underlines the dissemination of videos of demands put on the Internet "on behalf of the ADF/MTM by the terrorist movement Islamic State (E.I.)/Daesh". "The most recent case being the video posted by the Islamic State on its propaganda site, the day after their foray into Loselose early last week".
The village of Loselose located in Rwenzori, one of the sectors of Beni territory, in North Kivu, came under the control of the armed forces on January 1, after being besieged for a few days by the ADF/MTM rebels.
"During the conquest of the village, the Congolese soldiers killed 14 ADF fighters, including 2 white, possibly Arab, recovering various weapons", said an army spokesman. Two soldiers were also killed in the fighting.
The Forces for the Defense of Democracy (ADF) are a group of Ugandan origin for decades established in the east of the DRC, which for some years declared itself affiliated with the Islamic State, taking the name of Madina a Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen (MTM, "The city of monotheism and monotheists"). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 8/1/2021)


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