Suspected rebels killed at least 36 civilians in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the provincial governor said on Sunday, marking the deadliest massacre in the conflict-ravaged region this year.
Suspected rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group of Ugandan origin, killed the people in the town of Beni during the night, army spokesman Mak Azuray told AFP. “We have just found their bodies.”
Based in eastern DRC for more 20 years, the ADF has been accused of copious human rights abuses and is thought to be deeply embroiled in criminal networks funded by kidnappings, smuggling and logging.
The assailants hacked to death 22 men and 14 women late on Saturday in their homes and fields on the outskirts of the local commercial hub of Beni, Julien Paluku said in a statement.
The population of Beni “has once again been hit by terrorist acts of diverse origins whose objective is to sabotage the efforts at peace undertaken over the last two years,” he said.
Local activists say more than 500 civilians have been killed near Beni since October 2014, most in overnight raids by rebels carried out with machetes and hatchets.
Local army spokesman Mak Hazukay told Reuters that the attack was staged in the early evening by rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist militia that has operated in eastern Congo since the 1990s.
The ADF, a secretive organization of only a few hundred fighters, did not comment.
Hazukay said the raid was in reprisal for army operations against the ADF, which the government says is responsible for nearly all the attacks near Beni over the last year.
However, a United Nations panel of experts and independent analysts says that other armed groups, including some Congolese soldiers, have been involved in attacks on civilians.
It appeared to be the deadliest attack in the area since an assault blamed on the ADF in November 2014 killed some 80 people.
“The goal of the attack is to incite the population to rise up against us,” Hazukay said.

Source : Arab News