- Source: Mwenda massacre
On January 4, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces 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.
Background
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. On December 31, 2020, ADF militants attacked civilians in Tingwe, also in Beni Territory. Thirty people were killed in the attack at Tingwe.
Massacre
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. Civilian homes were looted and ransacked by the jihadists, and several others were kidnapped. At the same time as the attack on Mwenda, ADF fighters killed nine people in a nearby village. Twenty-two people were initially killed in the massacre at Mwenda, and ten others were injured. Of the 22 killed, ten were women. The death toll rose to 23 by January 15.
The Congolese Army entered Mwenda after the massacre, and the ADF fled but remained near the town.
Aftermath
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. 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. Four people were killed in another attack by the ADF on January 15 in Mwenda.
On January 7, UN Secretary General António Guterres condemned the massacres at Tingwe, Mwenda, and Loselose.