At least 10 killed in fresh DR Congo attack

BENI, DR Congo: Suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia killed at least 10 people in eastern DR Congo overnight, sources said Tuesday.

A not-for-profit group called the Kivu Security Tracker (KST) said a massacre occurred on Monday night in Kalembo, in the Beni area of North Kivu province, resulting in "at least 10" civilian deaths.

"The ADF are suspected," it said in a tweet.

Donat Kibuana, the government's chief administrator for Beni, said: "The ADF enemy ransacked the pharmacies and shops after massacring civilians. The provisional toll is 10 dead."

Some were stabbed to death and others were shot dead, he said.

The ADF is the most notorious of scores of armed groups that roam the eastern provinces of the vast Democratic Republic of Congo.

They are legacies of two regional wars in the 1990s that claimed millions of lives.

Originally Ugandan Muslim rebels, the ADF settled in the DRC in 1995.

In recent years they have given up on attacks in neighbouring Uganda, but have carried out repeated massacres in Beni, killing more than 1,000 people since October 2014.

The United Nations' refugee agency, the UNHCR, said on Tuesday that more than 2,000 civilians were killed in North and South Kivu and Ituri province last year.

The toll comprised 1,240 in Ituri, 590 in North Kivu and 261 in South Kivu.

"The killings and kidnappings have continued in North Kivu in 2021, where attacks have also been directed against displaced civilians," it said.

More than 88,000 displaced people reside in 22 UN-supported sites in the area, according to UN figures.