Jihadist fighters kill 11 civilians in DR Congo

Eleven civilians were killed by jihadist fighters over the past two days in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Sunday.

"We have just lost another seven people, including a woman, massacred in the Gala district," said Lewis Thembo, president of the local civil service organization in Bulongo of central DR Congo.

Shops and a pharmacy were looted by the "ADF [Allied Democratic Forces] enemies" who waged the attack, Thembo added, denouncing "failures in military command."

North Kivu, where Bulongo is located, and its neighboring Ituri province, have been under a "state of siege" since May to curb ADF bloodshed.

But the violence continues.

Bulongo Mayor Jean-Paul Kahindo confirmed the killings.

Four civilians were also killed the previous night in an attack near Bulongo, also attributed to the notorious ADF group.

According to the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), a respected US-based monitor, some 120 armed groups operate in eastern DR Congo, of which the ADF is considered to be the deadliest.

The DRC's Catholic Church says the ADF has killed around 6,000 civilians since 2013, while KST blames it for more than 1,200 deaths in the northeastern city of Beni alone since 2017.

In March the United States officially linked the ADF, a historically Ugandan Islamist group, to the Islamic State.

"The rebels attack civilians where there are no soldiers," Bertin Mputela, a commander of military operations in the area, told the press. 

"The Congo is big... it's difficult to put a section of soldiers in every village."