Militia attack kills at least nine in eastern DR Congo

Overnight Saturday to Sunday, the Allied Democratic Forces carried out attacks against civilians in the town of Oicha, looting shops and setting fire to homes, according to accounts collected by AFP on the spot.

Based since the mid-1990s in the northeastern DRC, near the Ugandan border, the ADF is a group of mainly Muslim Ugandan fighters who have killed thousands of civilians in the region.

During "this incursion, the ADF enemy killed eight civilians and a police officer," Isaac Kavalami, president of a local civil group, told AFP.

An AFP correspondent on Sunday saw nine bodies at the morgue of Oicha General Hospital, some with stab wounds.

Lieutenant Marc Elongo, spokesman for the Congolese army in the region, also blamed "ADF terrorists" for the attack.

The ADF were taking revenge on local civilians in retaliation for ongoing military operations in the area, he said in a statement.

Kavalami said civil society representatives had alerted security forces about the threat of attacks but no steps had been taken.

The ADF pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019, and has killed thousands of civilians despite the deployment of the Ugandan and Congolese armies.