16 killed, 20 abducted in Congo in attacks blamed on Islamic State-linked rebels

KINSHASA, Congo -- At least 16 villagers were killed and 20 others were abducted in northeastern Congo during attacks by militants with ties to the Islamic State group, a local civil society group said Friday.

The assailants with the Allied Democratic Forces staged a series of attacks on locals, some while working on their farmlands, between Wednesday and Friday in Ituri province’s Mambasa territory, said John Vulverio, coordinator of the New Civil Society of Congo.

“The (death) toll remains provisional, as the fate of 20 others kidnapped remains unknown,” he said.

Among those kidnapped in the attacks were the mother and sister of Gilbert Sivamwenda, a local government official, local media quoted the legislator as saying.

Dozens of villages across Congo are besieged by armed groups made up of either local rebels fighting for power and valuable mineral resources or militants with extremist ideologies. The Allied Democratic Forces have carried out growing attacks in the region and sometimes across the border with neighboring Uganda where it was originally formed.

The violence across the central African nation has resulted in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, many beyond the reach of aid.

The 15,000-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo that helped in the fight against rebels for more than two decades was asked by the Congolese government to leave over its failure to end the conflict. The withdrawal is to be completed by the end of 2024.