Militants linked to the Islamic State group have killed at least 14 people in a coordinated overnight attack on villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the military and local officials.
The attackers, identified as fighters of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), struck three villages simultaneously within a seven-kilometre radius in the Bapera sector of North Kivu province, northwest of the regional capital.
Local leader Macaire Sivikunula said the assailants launched the incursion between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm, triggering panic as sustained gunfire rang out across the communities. He added that several homes were set ablaze during the attack.
According to Sivikunula, at least 15 people were initially reported killed, while 13 houses were burned. Residents who spoke with newsmen confirmed the scale of the violence and said many villagers fled into surrounding areas to escape the assault.
The Congolese army later confirmed a revised death toll of 14 people, including 12 civilians and two soldiers. “There was an incursion by ADF terrorists in the Bapera sector,” regional army spokesperson Lieutenant Marc Elongo said, adding that security forces were responding to the attack.
The ADF, which originated as a Ugandan rebel group, has been entrenched in eastern Congo since the mid-1990s and has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians over the years.
The group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in recent years.
Ugandan troops have been deployed alongside the Congolese army since 2021 to combat the militants, but the joint military operations have struggled to end the violence.
The ADF frequently targets unprotected villages before retreating into the dense forests of the region, complicating pursuit and rescue efforts.
