At least 24 civilians were killed over two days by a notorious militia in the Beni region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the army is battling armed groups, a local source said Wednesday.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a mainly Muslim movement that originated in Uganda in the 1990s has been blamed for more than 1,000 civilian deaths in the Beni region of North Kivu province since 2014.
“Twenty bodies were discovered Monday in the villages of Mapasana and Mabuo,” Kinos Kathuho, head of the local civil society told AFP.
Four other bodies were found on Tuesday in the nearby village of Mbau after an attack, he added.
Beni regional administrator Donat Kibwana confirmed the attacks to AFP.
A local NGO called Cepadho said in a statement that 40 civilians were killed by ADF over the last 10 days in Beni.
In the same region, “794 civilians [have been] massacred by the ADF” since the army launched an offensive against it last October, Cepadho said.
The DRC army has been fighting an array of armed groups in the east of the vast central African country for nearly three decades.
The ADF moved from neighboring Uganda into the DRC in 1995, making the country its base of operations, although it has not carried out attacks inside Uganda for years.