The Congolese militias of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), linked to the Islamic State in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have killed 13 people in the province of Ituri, their usual area of operations and, since May, the epicenter of the worst Ebola outbreak recorded in the African country, which has so far left more than 1,800 dead.
The assault, according to local society sources cited by Radio Okapi, the United Nations broadcaster in the DRC, took place between the night of Thursday and Friday of this week in the territory of Mambasa and repeated the same modus operandi: lifeless bodies in the streets among homes and burned vehicles.
The ADF particularly attacked the community of Banana École, where the disappearance of an unspecified number of civilians has also been reported, who are believed to have been kidnapped.
Civil society groups in Mambasa claim that they had warned the authorities about the alleged presence of the ADF in certain areas of the territory a few days before the assault. According to these groups, the information was conveyed, particularly last Monday and Tuesday, with the aim of alerting security services about the risk of a rebel incursion.
The ADF have been punishing the north of the DRC for years to seize its natural resources, and their offensives force thousands of residents to flee each year. These mass displacements, amid the Ebola emergency, hinder health teams from controlling the movements of the population, which favors the rapid spread of the virus and also increases the risk to the lives of health workers themselves.