Mwenda massacre | |
---|---|
Part of Allied Democratic Forces insurgency of the Kivu conflict | |
Location | Mwenda, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Date | January 4, 2021 7 p.m. |
Weapons | Machetes and guns |
Deaths | 23 |
Injured | 10 |
Victims | Unknown number of civilians kidnapped |
Perpetrator | Allied Democratic Forces |
On January 4, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces [note 1] attacked the village of Mwenda, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 23 people. The massacre came several days after an attack on Tingwe that killed over 30 people.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group based in Uganda and the DRC, established contact with the Islamic State to become the Islamic State's Central African Province (ISCAP) in 2017. [1] On December 31, 2020, ADF militants attacked civilians in Tingwe, also in Beni Territory. [2] Thirty people were killed in the attack at Tingwe. [2]
ADF militants attacked Mwenda at 7 p.m. on January 4, and went door-to-door bludgeoning residents to death with machetes and shooting them as well. [2] Civilian homes were looted and ransacked by the jihadists, and several others were kidnapped. [2] At the same time as the attack on Mwenda, ADF fighters killed nine people in a nearby village. [3] Twenty-two people were initially killed in the massacre at Mwenda, and ten others were injured. [2] [3] Of the 22 killed, ten were women. [3] The death toll rose to 23 by January 15. [4]
The Congolese Army entered Mwenda after the massacre, and the ADF fled but remained near the town. [3] [4]
The massacre at Mwenda was the second in a string of ADF attacks since the start of 2021. Two days after the attack on Mwenda, thirty civilians were killed in the nearby village of Loselose. [5] On January 12, ADF jihadists ambushed Congolese forces in Mwenda, sparking a battle that left one soldier killed and three others injured. The ADF was ultimately repelled from the village. [6] Four people were killed in another attack by the ADF on January 15 in Mwenda. [7]
On January 7, UN Secretary General António Guterres condemned the massacres at Tingwe, Mwenda, and Loselose. [8]
The Allied Democratic Forces insurgency is an ongoing conflict waged by the Allied Democratic Forces in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the governments of those two countries and the MONUSCO. The insurgency began in 1996, intensifying in 2013, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The ADF is known to currently control a number of hidden camps which are home to about 2,000 people; in these camps, the ADF operates as a proto-state with "an internal security service, a prison, health clinics, and an orphanage" as well as schools for boys and girls.
On December 24, 2019, militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked the Burkinabe government military base in Arbinda, Sahel Region, Burkina Faso along with the town of Arbinda itself. The attack was halted due to French and Burkinabe air intervention, although 35 civilians were killed in the jihadists' massacre. The Arbinda attack was the deadliest incident in the jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso in several years.
The 2020 Democratic Republic of the Congo attacks were a series of attacks which took place in 2020. The attacks were mostly carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a radical Islamist rebel group and the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), an agricultural and religious group made up of ethnic Lendu people. The attacks left at least 1,316 people dead and 132 injured.
Mai-Mai Kyandenga is a Mai-Mai armed group operating in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It claims to protect the local population of Beni Territory and their land. It still remains unclear what the actual goal of the group is and how much it has in connection with the Union of Patriots for the Liberation of Congo (ULPC), Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), and other Mai-Mai groups operating in the area.
Events in the year 2021 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Attacks were carried out by various armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2021 and 2022. The attacks have killed 629 and injured 321. At least 82 perpetrators were also killed and one injured in these attacks.
On June 11, 2022, jihadists from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked the town of Seytenga, Séno Province, Burkina Faso, killing over a hundred civilians in a massacre. The massacre occurred after Burkinabe forces evacuated the city following ISGS' takeover of the Burkinabe base in the town on June 9.
Lulenge constitutes one of the four sectors within the Fizi Territory of South Kivu Province, situated in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Geographically positioned adjacent to the Kiloba and Makena villages at an elevation of 943 meters, the sector's administrative center is Kilembwe. Lulenge is delineated to the north by the Itombwe sector and Mwenga Territory, to the east by Lake Tanganyika and the Mutambala sector, to the south by the N'gangya sector, and to the west by Shabunda Territory.
Between January 24 and 26, 2023, M23 rebels and Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) soldiers fought over the city of Kitshanga. The battle was part of the renewed M23 offensive, and ended on January 26 with M23 forces capturing the city. Civilians accused both M23 and FARDC-aligned militias of war crimes during and after the battle.
Between January 28 and 30, 2020, the Islamic State – Central Africa Province (ISCAP) killed at least seventy-three people in a series of massacres in Oicha Territory, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The attacks spanned across several towns, especially Mantumbi, Manzingi, and Mamove.
On October 20, 2020, jihadists from the Islamic State – Central Africa Province (ISCAP) raided the prison and neighboring military camp in Kangbayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, releasing 1,335 prisoners of the original 1,456.
On October 31, 2020, jihadists from the Islamic State's Central Africa Province (ISCAP) attacked the village of Lisasa, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing over twenty-one civilians after brief clashes with UPLC Mai-Mai militiamen. The massacre came just several days after ISCAP slaughtered nineteen civilians in the village of Baeti.
On December 31, 2020, jihadist militants from the Islamic State affiliate Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Tingwe, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least thirty people. Several other civilians were kidnapped as well.
On March 12, 2023, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Kirindera, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing nineteen civilians. The massacre occurred days after the Mukondi massacre, where the ADF/ISCAP killed around forty civilians,
At 2am on March 15, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the town of Bulongo, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 15 people.
On August 4, 2021, jihadists from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked several towns and Burkinabe bases in Markoye Department, Oudalan Province, Burkina Faso. Several rural villages were raided and civilians were killed, and the jihadist raids on Burkinabe bases in Tokabangou sparked battles that killed dozens of Burkinabe soldiers and ISGS fighters. The attacks were the deadliest day for the Burkinabe government since the Solhan and Tadaryat massacres in June 2021.
On the night between May 30 and 31, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the towns of Boga and Tchabi, killing a total of fifty-seven civilians and injuring forty-seven others. The attacks were one of the deadliest massacres ever perpetrated by the ADF since its founding in the 1990s.
On July 22, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces ambushed a convoy of civilians returning from a market along a highway between Mayi-Moya and Chani-chani, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sixteen civilians were killed in the ambush, and nine more were injured.
On August 28, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Kasanzi, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Nineteen civilians were killed in the massacre, and the attack was part of a larger spree by ISCAP against villages in Beni Territory.
On March 31, 2024, jihadists from Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin attacked Burkinabe forces in Tawori, Tapoa Province, Burkina Faso. Over seventy Burkinabe soldiers were killed and thirty-two civilians were killed during the attack and the subsequent massacre.