Armed group kills 20 in DR Congo

Suspected Islamic State-affiliated ADF rebels have killed 20 civilians in DR Congo’s northeastern Ituri province, local sources said Thursday.

“The victims were taken hostage Tuesday during an ADF raid” at Babila Babombi, a locality in Mambasa, a territory regularly targeted by ADF and other militia groups, police administrator Matadi Muyapandi told AFP.

“There are 20 dead — 16 men and four women,” he said, adding four people who escaped had been hospitalized.

“The victims had been decapitated, the modus operandi” of the ADF, originally mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, who have established a presence over the past three decades in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing thousands of civilians.