“The lull was broken last weekend. After months of relative calm in Beni Territory, northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, attackers descended on two villages, killing nine people. As with similar incidents over the past year or so, officials attributed the machete attack to the Allied Democratic Forces, an insurgency of Ugandan origin based in eastern Congo. ‘We are worried by these events,’ said Jean-Paul Ngahangondi, national coordinator of the Beni-based Convention for the Respect of Human Rights, an NGO. These rebels are brutally killing civilians, even just a few metres from army or UN peacekeeper positions. Whenever there are new attacks we don’t bother to report it to the authorities because no solution is ever found.’ Over the last 11 months, more than 450 people have been killed in similar incidents blamed on the ADF, according to a tally published by Rafiki, a local monthly newspaper.”
Source: IRIN Africa | A counterinsurgency failure in eastern Congo | DRC | Conflict
