IS-Affiliated Armed Group Attacks Village in Eastern DRC, Killing at Least 20

Armed assailants use guns and knives to attack civilians, leaving many missing
Attack carried out one day before UN Under-Secretary-General’s visit

Local authorities announced on February 9 (local time) that at least 20 people were killed in an attack by an armed group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

According to the Associated Press, Colonel Alain Kiwewa Mitela, the local military administrator, said that the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an IS-affiliated armed group, attacked the village of Mambimbi-Isigo in the Lubero area of North Kivu Province on February 7. A local civic group said that assailants armed with guns and knives targeted civilians, and expressed concern that the death toll could rise further, as many residents are missing in addition to those confirmed dead.

The ADF is an armed group that was formed in Uganda in the early 1990s and later moved its base to eastern DRC, where central government control is weak. Since 2019, it has claimed to be a branch of IS and has been carrying out killings, abductions, and rapes of civilians in eastern DRC, leading the United Nations and others to single it out as a major perpetrator of human rights violations.

Congolese soldiers and UN troops patrolling near Beni in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo by Associated Press and Yonhap News

ADF attacks have been continuing one after another this year. According to local civic groups, the ADF has killed at least 62 civilians this year alone in the Beni and Lubero areas of North Kivu Province. Last year as well, in September, it raided a funeral home in the village of Ntoyo in the Lubero area and killed more than 70 residents, and in August it attacked several villages in the Beni and Lubero areas, reportedly killing at least 52 civilians.

Eastern DRC, rich in strategic minerals such as cobalt, copper, and coltan, has been plagued by conflict for more than 30 years, as more than 100 armed groups, including the Tutsi-led M23 rebel group, operate there alongside the ADF.

The latest attack occurred one day before the visit of Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations at the United Nations Department of Peace Operations (DPO), to DRC. According to the Rwandan outlet Tarifa, Lacroix, who oversees UN peacekeeping operations, began an official three-day visit to DRC on February 8. During his visit, he is touring eastern DRC, including the Beni area that was hit by ADF attacks.

In DRC, the United Nations peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), has been deployed to carry out tasks such as maintaining security, protecting civilians, and providing humanitarian assistance in the eastern region.