Forty-six persons were killed on Thursday in an attack by combatants of the Uganda-based Alliance Democratic Forces (ADF) in the Irumu territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to government authorities in the province of Ituri, the victims were pygmies who were killed in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom, located near the North Kivu province where forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo army have been fighting rebels of the ADF for the past six years.
“Before midday, we were alerted about an ADF attack on the Abombi group in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom. Unfortunately, they killed many pygmies. The latest information we received this afternoon is that 46 persons died. The assailants are elements of the ADF Nalu,” Adio Gidi, the Ituri Provincial Minister of the interior, said.
“This is a provisional figure. There were many wounded and others who escaped who have confirmed that there were more than forty-six deaths,” the minister added.
The minister said a mission would be dispatched to the area to determine the final death toll.
Civil society sources in the area reveal that among the dead were women and children and until late Thursday evening, several corpses were still in the open air unattended to.
HumAngle recalls that ADF attacks in the Ituri province, particularly in Irumu and Mambasa terrorist, began last year and have been increasing by the day without any robust counter measures by the Democratic Republic of Congo military.
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