Forty-six civilians feared killed in eastern Congo attack, official says
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Forty-six civilians are reported to have been killed in an attack by suspected Islamist militants on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a senior provincial official said on Thursday.
“The death toll as of this afternoon is reported to be 46,” Gidi said.
After being alerted to the latest violence, troops went to the village and are in the process of recovering bodies, local army spokesman Jules Ngongo said. He did not say how many had been killed.
Congo’s eastern borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are home to a constellation of over 100 different militias, many remnants of its brutal civil wars that officially ended in 2003.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for many suspected ADF attacks in the past, although U.N. experts have not been able to confirm any direct link between the two groups.