At least 16 civilians were killed on Tuesday, June 4, in an attack attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels in Masau, a village in the Beni territory of North Kivu, according to local civil society sources.
The attack, which took place in the Beni-Mbau sector, also displaced a large number of residents who fled to neighboring areas believed to be safer.
Local civil society groups claim the ADF rebels exploited the recent replacement of Congolese army soldiers (FARDC) in Masau, where only two police officers were stationed, to target the civilian population.
By Wednesday morning, 16 bodies of slain civilians had been recovered in the area. The attackers are also reported to have set fire to four houses.
In response to the violence, civil society in Beni-Mbau is calling for the intensification of joint military operations between the FARDC and Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) against the ADF in the region.
The Congolese military, FARDC, has so far offered no explanation for the details surrounding the attack in Masau.
The ADF, a rebel group with Ugandan origins, has been blamed for numerous attacks on civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent years. The group is considered by many to be a threat to regional security.
