At least 31 civilians have been killed in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo since the middle of last week in attacks attributed to ADF fighters, local and security sources said on Monday.
The attacks occurred between Wednesday and Monday this week, Jospin Paluku, head of the Mambasa civil society in the northeastern province of Ituri, told AFP.
Other local sources confirmed the death toll of 31, while a security source said around 50 people were killed.
The Islamic State-affiliated ADF the Allied Democratic Forces, formed by Ugandan rebels is notorious for extreme violence against civilians and has carried out repeated massacres in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
Those northeast regions, rich in minerals, have been plagued by violence for more than 30 years from militias such as the ADF and other armed groups.
The local and security sources said the most recent attacks occurred in several areas of the Babila Babombi area, located in Mambasa territory in Ituri.
At least 18 of the victims were killed Friday in the mining village of Njiapanda-Bela, they said.
{{/usCountry}}At least 18 of the victims were killed Friday in the mining village of Njiapanda-Bela, they said.
{{/usCountry}}The ADF, broken up into mobile groups using Ituri forests as cover, has been seeking for several months to extract "protection" money from local communities that earn income from growing cocoa and mining, according to analysts.
"A week ago, I paid $10 as a tax demanded by the ADF. We come across them often in the bush," a farmer for a zone in Mambasa told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"They give us token as receipt of payment. If you're found without a token, that means you haven't paid their tax and it's death," said another farmer, also demanding anonymity.
Uganda has deployed troops since 2021 in the parts of North Kivu and Ituri to help the DRC army fight the ADF, but their joint efforts have not been able to end the violence.
"When we declare the whereabouts of the ADF to the soldiers, either they take us for collaborators or the soldiers demand intelligence on the rebels' movements, which puts us in danger. So, usually, we prefer to keep quiet," said another farmer.
More than 190 civilians have been killed since January in Babila Babombi, in areas where the ADF has not yet imposed its "protection" levy, Muhindo Mamboro Peresi, head of the region's civil society, told AFP.
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