Goma, Congo - Islamist rebels killed
twelve people in two attacks in an area of east Congo that is
struggling to contain an Ebola epidemic, local authorities said
on Tuesday.
Suspected rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)
simultaneously attacked the towns of Eringeti and Oicha on
Monday in the locality of Beni, the epicentre of an Ebola
epidemic, Beni's territorial administrator Kasereka Donat said.
They killed nine in Eringeti and three in Oicha, he said. A
local civil society official based in Beni, Janvier Kasahiryo,
gave the same figures.
"Despite a strong deployment of Congolese army troops in the
region, the population is in a state of total panic because of
these attacks," Donat said.
Since last month, Islamic State have claimed attacks carried
out by the ADF, but their relationship with each other is murky.
. Though the ADF has never claimed allegiance to
Islamic State, the organisation has described areas under ADF
influence as its 'Central Africa Province'.
The presence of an Islamist militant group, along with a
patchwork of other violent militias and armed criminal bands,
has severely hampered efforts to contain the world's
second-worst Ebola epidemic on record.
Ebola has killed more than 1,700 and last week the World
Health Organisation declared it an international health
emergency .