UNHCR: More Than 200 Killed In Armed Attacks In DR Congo Since January

The U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said over 200 people have been killed and thousands displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since the beginning of 2021 in attacks by armed groups affiliated to ISIL (ISIS), reported TRT World.

According to the UNHCR, there has been an alarming increase in attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)-a Ugandan militant group present in eastern DRC since 1995.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said nearly 200 people have been killed, hundreds of others injured, and an estimated 40,000 people have been displaced in DRC’s Beni Territory in North Kivu province as well as nearby villages in Ituri province.

He said the ADF allegedly has raided 25 villages, set fire to dozens of houses, and kidnapped more than 70 people in the last three months.

The ADF is considered the bloodiest of the 122 militia groups that plague the eastern DRC. It killed an estimated 465 people in 2020.

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

Experts say the massacres have increased and become more frequent since the army launched an offensive in October 2019, forcing the ADF to break up into smaller units.

Baloch said the surge in attacks is likely due to the armed group’s retaliation against military operations, their search for food and medicine, and accusations against communities of sharing information on ADF positions.

The UNHCR spokesman said women and children constitute the majority of those fleeing their homes and the men stay behind to protect their property. He noted that the displaced people are living in dire conditions without shelter, food, water, or health care.

The UNHCR has urgently appealed for $2 million to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to those displaced in Beni, North Kivu, and Irumu Territory in Ituri. The agency said it needs $33 million for its humanitarian operation in the whole of eastern DRC. Only 5.5% of that amount needed has been received so far.