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Violence following the launch of joint military operations by the DRC and Uganda against the armed group.
Alleged Democratic Allied Forces (ADF) fighters have killed 16 people in attacks in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). joint operation Congolese and Ugandan forces are marching against the armed group.
Local officials said on Friday that the attacks took place on Wednesday night in the rural commune of Mangina and in the surrounding North Kivu province of Masiri DRC.
Mangina Deputy Mayor Freddy Mbayayi told Reuters news agency that an unknown number of people had also been kidnapped in the attack.
Neighbor Pelka Josaphat said four family members were abducted because people were killing them with machetes. “It was horrible to see mothers, children and the elderly fleeing the cruelty of the ADF,” Josaphat told Reuters.
Local officials said the attackers belonged to the ADF, which is linked to the United States by ISIL (ISIS) and is one of the most dangerous mineral-rich armed groups operating in the DRC east.
Last month, Ugandan authorities also blamed the ADF for the fatality suicide bombings Kampala in the capital. At least four people were killed and dozens more were injured in the November 16 bombing.
Since Uganda and the DRC launched joint military operations against the ADF, Ugandan forces have launched air and artillery attacks on the group’s bases and sent thousands of troops across the border.
Uganda has promised to last long enough to defeat the ADF, but the intervention has exacerbated some Congolese, who recall that Uganda stole their resources during the second DRC civil war between 1998 and 2003.
The ADF was founded in Uganda in 1995 and then moved to the DRC, where it is among dozens of armed groups seeking control of the country’s eastern territories and mineral resources.
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