Suspected militants kill 19 in eastern Congo village
Suspected extremist militants killed at least 19 people in a raid on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said.
The attackers looted houses and started fires in Kasanzi-Kithovo near Virunga National Park in North Kivu province overnight between Friday and Saturday, they said.
"I don't know where to go with my two children," villager Kahindo Lembula, who lost four of her relatives in the attack, told Reuters by phone. "Only God will help us."
The head of Buliki district, Kalunga Meso, and local rights group CEPADHO blamed the assault on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) - an extremist militant group accused of killing thousands of people in recent years, mostly in remote areas.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility and the ADF could not be reached.
The government declared martial law in North Kivu and neighboring Ituri province at the beginning of May, in an attempt to quell a surge in violence that the military largely attributes to the ADF.
But the number of civilians killed in such attacks has only increased since then, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, which maps unrest in eastern Congo.
Earlier in August, President Felix Tshisekedi said special forces from the United States would soon deploy to the east to gauge the potential for a local anti-terrorism unit to combat extremist violence.
The ADF was blacklisted in March by Washington as a terrorist group. It has publicly aligned itself with Daesh, which in turn has claimed responsibility for some of its attacks.
But in a June report, UN experts said they had found no evidence of direct support from Daesh to the ADF.
(Source: Reuters)
South Africa to file detailed dossier with top UN court on Israeli genocide
Putin: BRICS, not the West, will drive global economic prosperity
Pentagon says completed US military withdrawal from Niger
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
Iranian satellites launched into space as private sector debuts in space industry
VIDEO | Iran, Azerbaijan conduct joint maritime rescue operations
VIDEO | Yemen’s Red Sea divide: Naval forces block Israeli-linked ships in strategic ‘parting of the water’
VIDEO | Southern Gaza: Israel’s facade for famine and suffering
VIDEO | IOF hampering humanitarian aid
VIDEO | Sharmahd: Justice Done
Iran repeatedly warned Israel not to test its will: FM
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
