DRC: attacks are increasing in and around Halungupa, in the Beni region

Internally displaced people flee the site of an attack attributed to ADF rebels in Halungupa, near Beni, in February 2020. Alexis Huguet / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

Since the beginning of April, violence has intensified in Halungupa, about 40 km from the city of Beni. Dozens of civilians were killed by alleged combatants of the ADF's Ugandan rebellion.

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi

Halungupa and its surroundings have today become the main center of activity for the ADF, the target of a so-called large-scale operation launched by the regular army since October 2019. Several villages are still emptied of their populations to date .

Two new lifeless bodies were discovered on Tuesday April 28 in Tungula, four kilometers from Halungupa. On these mortal remains, traces of bullets were visible. Two days earlier, about two kilometers from the area, in the village of Bwerere, 6 civilians and 2 soldiers had been killed in a new attack attributed to ADF combatants.

Since the beginning of April, around 20 people have been killed in this part of Beni territory in at least four different incursions. Localized attacks, in most cases, on the Kanana-Halungupa axis, in the Rwenzori sector.

The army has strengthened its presence in the area for two days. Senior officers have even been dispatched to the scene. Sources within the army suspect reinforcement from the Ugandan forests. An ADF fighter of Ugandan nationality, arrested last weekend at the Kasindi border post, is said to have cited some local accomplices, the same sources report.

These attacks multiply during the cocoa harvest period. And civilians are most often killed either in their fields or on the way home.

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Subscribe

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Ground floor

On the same subject

DRC: request for release for health reasons of the co-accused of Vital Kamerhe

DRC to review 2020 budget due to coronavirus

DRC: What about the disarmament of the FRPI armed group two months after the peace agreement?