A relatively unknown militant group inten-sified attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in August, raising fears of the emergence of a new jihadist organisation in central Africa.
For years, one of various rebel groups operating there, the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces–National Association for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF–NALU), has been trying to uproot Christians from the north-east area of DRC through attacks, rape, looting, kidnap and murder – on an almost weekly basis.
Tied up and hacked
At least 36 people were killed in mid-August in the village of Rwangoma, near Beni, the major town in the region. Victims were tied up and hacked to death. Some reports had as many as 50 dead.
ADF–NALU, originally rooted in a rebel movement to overthrow Uganda’s government and replace it with an Islamist fundamentalist state, but forced to re-locate over the border into DRC, has been murdering local people, far from the attention of most of the world’s major media.
While the National Association militants ostensibly ‘ended’ their fight in 2007, local bishops and civil society have repeatedly denounced the resurgence of violence still carried out in the name of ADF–NALU.
