GOMA (DR Congo), July 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Rebels killed 12 people in two attacks in an area of east Congo that is struggling to contain an Ebola epidemic, local authorities said.
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.
“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, the Daesh group have claimed attacks carried out by the ADF, but their relationship with each other is murky.. Though the ADF has never claimed allegiance to Daesh, the organisation has described areas under ADF influence as its ‘Central Africa Province’.
The presence of a 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. — NNN-AGENCIES
