More than 50 people were killed this week in the Beni region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo due to a series of new attacks by militants affiliated with the terrorist group “ISIS.”
According to AFP, the “Allied Democratic Forces” (considered a branch of ISIS in Central Africa) carried out these attacks, with 13 people killed in the latest attack on Thursday, targeting three villages in Beni in North Kivu province.
Kinos Katwo, a civil society official in the Mamove area where the attacks occurred, explained that “seven men and six women” were killed, adding that “several other people are missing.”
Leon Sefivue, an administrative official in Beni, confirmed that the “Allied Democratic Forces” killed 39 more people during raids conducted on Tuesday in three other villages in North Kivu. Other sources reported the killing of 15 people in another attack the previous day in the village of Masao, one of the three villages.
Sefivue indicated that “the number of victims may rise as search operations continue,” adding that “local residents are fleeing towards supposedly safe areas.”
The International Red Cross had earlier warned of escalating violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, describing the situation as a “massive crisis that has not received the global attention it deserves.”
The Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned of what it described as a “worrying escalation” of violence in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces on the eastern border.
According to United Nations estimates at the end of 2023, about 7 million people have been displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including 2.5 million displaced from North Kivu.
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