DR Congo army kills six fighters accused of massacres

DR Congo forces have killed six fighters of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in two operations targeting the group accused of killing nearly 400 civilians since November 2019, the army said Sunday.

The main action took place early in the day east of Beni, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The toll is five ADF cutthroats neutralised, one captured and one soldier wounded," army spokesman brigadier general Sylvain Ekenge told AFP.

Separately, "the army pounded an ADF position" near Beni and killed another fighter, he said.

DR Congo forces "have adapted their tactics against the ADF by becoming highly mobile, which allowed patrols to intercept ADF fighters trying to massacre civilians" in the area, the spokesman said.

"The captured terrorist is being interrogated and will reveal the true identity of these cutthroats," who use rifles as well as machetes, the army statement said.

The ADF began as an Islamist-rooted rebel group in Uganda that opposed President Yoweri Museveni.

It then fell back to North Kivu, DR Congo's border province with Uganda, during the Congo Wars of the 1990s.

The militia appears to have halted raids inside Uganda and its recruits today are of various nationalities.

Already blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths in the Beni region since 2014, the group embarked on a series of massacres after the army launched a crackdown in October.