ADF rebels kill 19 in DR Congo attack

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Rebel fighters linked to the Islamic State group killed at least 19 people in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities told AFP on Monday.

The eastern DRC, a region bordering Rwanda with abundant natural resources, has suffered extreme violence for more than three decades, often at the hands of armed insurgent groups.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an organisation founded by former Ugandan rebels who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, raided the village of Mukondo, in Lubero territory, and "slaughtered 19 people" on Sunday, the local military administrator Alain Kiwewa told AFP.

"Houses and shops were set on fire" and there was "a massive displacement of the local population", he said.

Sixteen civilians and one Congolese soldier have been identified among the victims so far, and several people have been kidnapped by the attackers, Kambale Maboko, head of the local civil society organisation, told AFP.

Authorities had been warned of the risk of attack in the area, he said.

"There were warnings, but they were not taken into account, and this is the result, which is very heavy," he lamented.

Ugandan soldiers have been deployed alongside the Congolese army since 2021 to fight the ADF, but the joint operation has failed to end to the violence.

The ADF primarily attacks defenceless civilians before retreating into the vast forests that cover the region before reinforcements arrive.

They have killed more than 180 civilians in eastern DRC since July in several attacks, according to an AFP tally.