Rebel attacks in eastern DRC kill 30 people and hamper Ebola response

Islamic State-linked militia blamed for raids in North Kivu as governor says three patients with disease fled clinics

Rebel attacks around a town that is one of the centres of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have left more than 30 people dead over the past few days, complicating the response to the disease.

At least 10 people were massacred in raids on three villages around the city of Beni, in North Kivu, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia affiliated to Islamic State, has been blamed for the attacks on the villages of Matété, Mamuli and Kitoho in eastern DRC.

Isaac Kavalami, a community leader from the region, said: “We have provisionally recorded around 10 deaths. Motorcycles and homes were set alight by the ADF rebels. They also kidnapped civilians, the number of whom is not yet known.”

As of Wednesday, 344 cases and 60 deaths have been recorded in the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces.

Just before midnight on Saturday, the militia entered Beni, which has been under DRC military administration since 2021.

People were beheaded and others shot in the attack, which caused widespread panic and sent hundreds of people running from their homes into the bush. More than 20 men, women and children, were reported killed and dozens missing, according to witnesses.

Mumbere Sivya, a resident of the Ngandi neighbourhood of Beni, said: “As we were getting ready for bed, we heard people screaming for help. It was an attack carried out by the ADF. We fled our homes in a panic to save our lives. Unfortunately, in the morning we realised that our neighbours had been beheaded.”

The ADF has stepped up its attacks on civilians and the Congolese army in the Beni region. Civil society organisations say about 10,000 civilians have been killed by the armed group since 2014.

The ADF, a loose network of insurgents and bandits, is also accused of committing atrocities in neighbouring Uganda, according to the authorities there.

The military governor of North Kivu said in a statement on Tuesday that three patients confirmed to have Ebola had fled treatment centres in Beni after Saturday’s attacks.

The raids and fear in the communities have complicated efforts to deal with the 17th Ebola epidemic to hit the DRC since the virus was first identified in 1976.

“Ebola kills, but not by decapitation. We are losing loved ones as a result of the ADF’s atrocities. It is a bitter pill to swallow,” said Albert Lusenge, a civil society activist in Beni.

Lusenge has lost 20 fam