24 killed by armed groups in eastern DRC

At least 24 people were killed in three different attacks that took place overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, both in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the local authorities source, reported Xinhua.

According to local authorities in Beni, the rebels first attacked the village of Kisima on Tuesday evening and killed eleven civilians and subsequently burned down a few houses.

The same assailants later launched an attack near the center of Oicha and shot dead two other civilians before retreating into the surrounding forest. According to civil society in Beni territory, the results of these two attacks are still provisional as some civilians have not been found since the attack on Tuesday.

In the neighboring province of Ituri located on the border with the city of Beni, eleven people were killed and a dozen houses burned down on the same Tuesday night during an incursion by another local militia called Congo Patriotic and Integrationist Force in the village of Mugangu, according to the military authorities.

According to the army spokesman in Ituri Jules Ngongo, the militiamen armed with rifles and bladed weapons stormed this area located about twenty kilometers from the city of Bunia, before the intervention of the army in the area.

Security sources also indicate that the militiamen opened fire on the local population and set 19 houses on fire. The bodies of the populations with heads off were discovered after the withdrawal of the militiamen on the morning of Wednesday.

Military officials in the area say they have deployed and launched a pursuit against these rebels by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the local militia in Ituri.

The ADF-Ugandan rebels operating in the two provinces of Ituri and that of North Kivu have been active in this part of the country for decades and have increased attacks against the civilian population since last year.