After an attack overnight on the outskirts of Oicha town, in Beni territory—the heart of the years-long rampage by IS-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in North Kivu province—news of the killing began to circulate during the morning.
Early in the morning, rumours circulated about a fresh massacre in Beni, in the province’s north, the epicenter of ADF (“Allied Democratic Forces”) abuses, resulting in at least 26 deaths.
The ADF, who were mostly Muslim Ugandan rebels at first, have been active in this area of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo since the mid-1990s, and they have slaughtered thousands of civilians there.
They swore allegiance to the extremist organization Islamic State in 2019, and the group now claims credit for some of their deeds and refers to them as its “Central African province”.
They were recently charged with the murders of three individuals, including two international visitors, on October 17 in Queen Elizabeth Park while they were on Ugandan soil. IS claimed the action the following day.
Attackers identified by the government as ADF militia invaded an outskirt of the city of Oicha on Monday night and continued until daylight on Tuesday, robbing and killing people, mostly with knives.
“We have just deposited 26 bodies in the morgue,” declared Darius Syaira, civil society rapporteur for the Beni territory, in the morning. This toll of 26 killed was later confirmed by an army spokesperson.
Angry demonstrators set fire to humanitarian vehicles which were preparing to distribute food. “We don’t need humanitarian aid, we want security,” declared one demonstrator.
- Worse and worse
At the other end of the province, around twenty kilometers north of Goma, a town of over a million people that is backed by the Rwandan border and borders Lake Kivu, was the scene of the violence that had escalated since the beginning of October between M23 rebels and armed forces loyal to the government.
“There has been fighting in Kibumba since this morning,” a security source who requested anonymity told AFP.
“The rebels are confronting the +wazalendo+ (name given to the armed groups known as “patriots”). The M23 has just fired two bombs at us and we are in the process of responding,” added this source.
Although witnesses claim that soldiers and “patriots” are fighting together against the M23, a rebellion that is reportedly supported by Rwanda, the army is formally adhering to the truce that regional mediation has asked.
A spokesman for the military governor claimed in the afternoon that rebels “supported by the Rwandan army” had attacked an army post.
“Faced with this provocation, all measures have been taken ,” he said in a statement. According to another security source and a civilian witness, the army used a Sukhoi-25 fighter plane against the rebels.
“The situation is getting worse and worse. Both sides are exchanging heavy weapons fire ,” said a resident. “We are forced to flee.”
In a situation report, the DRC’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) estimated on Monday that around 200,000 people had to leave their homes in the Rutshuru and Masisi areas since October 1.
Several dozen people have died in recent weeks as a result of the fighting, which also impacts the area of Nyiragongo, which is closer to the provincial capital. These casualties include both militants and civilians.
In remarks made on Monday, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya mentioned “around fifty” civilian deaths at the hands of the rebels and the “umpteenth incursion” by the Rwandan army last week.
A spokesman for M23 vehemently refuted this.
Taking up arms again at the end of 2021, the M23 (“March 23 Movement”) is a Tutsi-led uprising that has taken control of vast areas of North Kivu.
When an East African force is sent into the province, Kinshasa, like the UN, strongly criticizes it for not pressuring the rebels to give up their weapons.
Numerous armed organizations, both domestic and foreign, many of which were left over from the bloody wars that tore through the DRC in the 1990s and 2000s, have been wreaking havoc on the east of the country for nearly 30 years.
