Three killed in militia attack in eastern DR Congo

• The attack has been blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed group linked to the Islamic State.
• The ADF is the deadliest of scores of armed militias that roam the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
• The group has killed around 6 000 civilians since 2013.

Three civilians have been killed in eastern DR Congo in a new attack blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group linked to the so-called Islamic State, the authorities said on Wednesday.

"Enemies associated with the ADF" carried out the attack in Beni overnight Tuesday, Muhindo Isaya, a representative of the governor of North Kivu province, told AFP.

"There is a provisional toll of three dead bodies," Isaya said.

A historically Ugandan Islamist group, the ADF is the deadliest of scores of armed militias that roam the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The DRC's Catholic Church says the ADF has killed around 6 000 civilians since 2013, while a respected US-based monitor, the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), blames it for more than 1 200 deaths in the Beni area alone since 2017.

The toll has risen sharply since 2019, when the militia appears to have become more radicalised, carrying out massacres in remote villages and taking survivors hostage.

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In March, the United States said the ADF was linked to the Islamic State group and identified its leader as Seka Musa Baluku.

The authorities have launched a crackdown that has included a "state of siege" in which members of the security forces have replaced top officials in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province.

In a separate incident in Beni, three soldiers died in an altercation among troops on Wednesday, the military said.

The army's regional spokesman, Lieutenant Antony Mualushay, said "A soldier fatally shot his commander, a captain, who reminded him of orders against taking civilians in army vehicles."

"He then killed a lieutenant who criticised him what he had done. When he saw troops coming to arrest him, he opened fire again. They opened fire on him to gain control of the situation and I can confirm that he has just died."