Johannesburg – Local officials said on Tuesday that at least 60 people were killed in an attack by members of an ISIS rebel group in the eastern Congo on Monday evening. The attack was the latest by the allied democratic forces in an area where a group of armed groups passed through a poor population, as they are competing to control the huge rare metal reserves.
The attack occurred in the evening where a group of people attended a funeral in Newto, said Mac Civiconola, a local official in the Lubro region of the Northern Kivu Province, told Reuters.
“The victims were arrested at a mourning party in the village of Netwio at about 9 pm, and most of them were killed by machines,” he said, adding that the search for the attackers was continuing.
“The ADF attack caused about 60 deaths, but the final outcome will be granted later in this evening because the region has just published services in the region to calculate the number of installments.”
“There were about 10 of them. I saw the organizations. They told people to meet in one place and began to cut them. I listened to people screaming and faint,” I saw about 10 of them. I saw the organizations.
Str/Xinhua/Getty
Samuel Kagini, the local civil society leader, told Reuters that the attackers used the machetes and also fired at some victims before setting vehicles.
ADF began in neighboring Uganda in the mid -1990s as an Islamic militia, before moving to the border region with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The militia established relations with ISIS in 2018 and was appointed by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization in 2021.
The United States government cited the brutal violence against both civilians, as well as the regional military forces, to conduct its appointment. Experts believe that ADF probably has between 1000 and 2000 members, including some foreign fighters.
The Monday’s attack was the latest in a series of recent killings in the area. Two attacks from ADF last month left 52 people dead, including eight women and two children, according to regional officials.
Bintou Keita, Head of the United Nations Mission in the Congo known as the name MonuscoIn a statement last month, “the attacks targeting civilians … are unbearable and constituted serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights.”
Str/Xinhua/Getty
In response to the attacks last month, Monosco said it has strengthened its military positions in the area.
There are more than 120 armed militias operating in the eastern Congo, and ADF is one of the largest and most brutal.
President Donald Trump has been in the ongoing regional crisis, in an attempt A peace deal broker Between the Congo and the neighboring Rwanda, which is believed to support M23 Rebel Group This launched a major attack in the Eastern Congo earlier this year, as it seized two large cities as well as mineral mines. The deal has not been completed.
https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2025/09/09/1e243fc8-210e-4ff6-aeb3-cfcc5f62e723/thumbnail/1200×630/1fbc573bb8459963c5612b467e1a4434/congo-adf-attack-2230195398.jpg
Source link