Over 200 dead in armed attacks in DR Congo since January – UN

According to the UN refugee agency, attacks blamed on ISIL affiliates in northeastern DR Congo have killed more than 200 people and displaced 40,000 people.

More than 200 people have been killed and around 40,000 displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January in attacks attributed to armed groups affiliated with ISIL (ISIL), the United Nations said.

The UN refugee agency on Friday reported an “alarming increase” in attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a historically Ugandan group that has been present in eastern DRC since 1995.

Since the start of the year, attacks blamed on the ADF “have killed nearly 200 people, injured dozens of others and displaced around 40,000 people in the Beni territory of the DRC in the province of North Kivu as well as in the neighboring villages of Ituri province, ”UNHCR spokesperson. Said Babar Baloch.

“In less than three months, the ADF would have attacked 25 villages, burned dozens of houses and kidnapped more than 70 people,” he told journalists in Geneva.

The ADF has a reputation for being the bloodiest of the 122 militias raging in eastern DRC. He killed around 465 people last year.

According to the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), an NGO that monitors violence in troubled eastern DRC, the group has killed more than 1,200 civilians in the Beni region alone since 2017.

The killings have become more frequent since the military launched an offensive in October 2019, forcing the ADF to split into smaller, highly mobile units, experts say.

Baloch said the latest wave of attacks appeared to be due to reprisals from armed groups, their search for food and medicine, and accusations against communities of sharing information about ADF positions.

Lack of funding

The United Nations agency has expressed concern for the internally displaced, who it says are at increased risk due to food and medicine, especially in the context of the current coronavirus and Ebola outbreaks in the region. .

People forcibly displaced last month had fled to the towns of Oicha, Beni and Butembo.

“The majority are women and children, as the men stay to protect the properties, exposing themselves to the risk of further attacks,” Baloch said.

Even before the recent massive displacement, some 100,000 internally displaced people were already in need of shelter and protection in Beni, according to UNHCR figures.

But funding shortages were seriously limiting the agency’s ability to provide shelter and other aid, Baloch warned.

Last year UNHCR was able to build more than 43,000 family shelters in eastern DRC, but this year it has so far the funding to build only a tenth.

“Only 4,400 families can be helped out of hundreds of thousands of people in need,” Baloch said, adding that a vital cash assistance program for displaced women at risk had also been cut short for lack of funds.

The United Nations refugee agency urgently needs $ 2 million (1.7 million euros) to strengthen its response in Beni and in Irumu territory in Ituri, he said.

Currently, the $ 33 million the agency has requested to provide assistance throughout eastern DRC in 2021 is only 5.5% funded.