Armed With Machetes And Hoarse, Congolese Rebels Kill 52 Residents

Congo/DOK Military PHOTO MONUSCO/Abel Kavanagh via Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA - ISIS-backed rebels and hoes have affected 52 civilians in the Beni and Lubero regions of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in recent days.

Lieutenant Elongo Kyondwa Marc, a regional Congo military spokesman, said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels were taking revenge on civilians after suffering defeat to Congo forces.

"When they arrived, they first woke up residents, gathered them in one place, tied them up with ropes, then started slaughtering them with machetes and hoes," Macaire Sivikunula, head of the Bapere sector in Lubero, told Reuters last weekend.

"About 30 civilians were killed in Melia Village alone," Alain Kiwewe, military administrator for the Lubero region, told Reuters on Tuesday, August 19.

"Among the victims were children and women whose necks were slit in their homes, while several houses were burned," he said.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) strongly condemns the attacks by the ADF between August 9 and 16.

The attack killed 52 civilians, including eight women and two children. The number of victims could increase as the search continues, the spokesman said.

The ADF is one of several militiamen fighting over land and resources in the eastern region of the mineral-rich Congo.

Congo's army and its ally, Uganda, have intensified operations against the ADF in recent weeks.

In late July, ADF rebels killed 38 people in an attack on a church in eastern Congo.