At least 16 people were killed, and five others were reported missing after a series of attacks attributed to the ADF struck several villages in the Beni-Mbau chiefdom in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to local civil society representatives.
Residents say the assaults targeted multiple locations, including a site where families had gathered to honour victims of an earlier attack, turning a place of grief into another scene of violence.
“We counted 16 people killed, and 5 others are missing,” said Omar Kalisya, President of Beni Territory Civil Society. He said the attacks spread across several villages, including Matete, Mamuli and Kitoho.
Eyewitnesses described scenes of panic as residents tried to escape.
“My son was not killed with a machete. He was shot… he had been trying to hide until dawn, but he did not survive,” said Machozi Mbayahi Edgar, a relative of a victim. “He lost a lot of blood. He was shot in the hip.”
According to local sources, the latest violence follows a series of earlier attacks in Ngadi in Beni city, as well as in nearby villages of Vemba and Kause, which left at least 24 people dead.
The Congolese army has previously attributed such killings to retaliatory actions by the ADF following the reported killing of one of their commanders, identified as Abu Hussein, a Yemeni national, in the Nakota
Source: Viory
