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Gunmen linked to the Islamic State group killed at least 44 civilians in a series of attacks across the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo this week, humanitarian and security sources reported on Friday.
Between Monday and Thursday, fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) raided several villages in the Mambasa territory of Ituri province, an unstable region where health officials first detected the country’s latest Ebola outbreak six months ago.
The raids follow another deadly assault just days earlier in neighbouring North Kivu province, where ADF militants killed at least 66 people—including three Ebola response workers—and burnt three healthcare facilities in Cantine-Aloya, roughly 100 kilometres from this week’s targets.
Read More : Militants Kill 66 Civilians in DR Congo
The escalating violence has severely disrupted medical efforts to contain the spiralling viral fever, prompting World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to warn that chronic instability poses “one of the greatest obstacles to the Ebola response in the DRC.”
Originally formed by former Ugandan rebels, the ADF gained notoriety for massacring civilians across Ituri and North Kivu before pledging allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019, which now claims the militants as its Islamic State Central Africa Province.
Despite joint deployments from both the Congolese and Ugandan armies to neutralise the group, military operations have so far failed to halt the attacks.
