Ugandan militants with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked the town between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. local time, said Omar Kavota, speaking from the nearby city of Beni. Kavota is a spokesman for the Civil Society of North Kivu.
“They killed 14 men and seven women, but this time they spared the young children, said Kavota. “They surprised the villagers who were sleeping in their houses.” Local government officials were not available for comment, according to Reuters.
A U.N. peacekeeping mission to Congo (MONUSCO) spokesman, Martin Kobler, issued a statement saying “tens of people” had been killed in the massacre. This latest attack comes just days after a shooting in the town of Aru, about 280 miles north of Beni, where 15 people were killed.
It has been a decade since the 1998-2003 war wound down, but that has not stopped a number of militant groups from operating in the eastern region of the nation. DRC has a wealth of reserves in gold, tin and tantalum, and the ADF has not made clear what their motivations are in the continuing surges over the border from the Congo, where they operate.
On January 5 of this year, United Nations troops and the Congolese military conducted ground and air strikes against a Burundian rebel group in the same general area. While the strikes were targeting the National Liberation Forces, the move was primarily to clear the way for future strikes against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. It is apparent that many of the rebel groups are operating out of Congo, said a U.N. military spokesman.
