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Wazalendo youth in kirumba surrender to M23

 

Series of ADF terror attacks increase as civilians argue UPDF and FARDC to strengthen their joint operation.

  Reports from July 1st to July 20th.

Civil society in Lubero (North Kivu) reported on Thursday, July 4, the burning of several homes and a health center during an attack attributed to ADF rebels in Masinzi.

According to this civil administration, the attackers attacked this village in the absence of the population who had already abandoned it for more than a week, following attacks by the same ADF in the area.

The administrator of the Lubero territory, Colonel Alain Kiwewa, confirmed this information, but without giving further details.

The incursion of these rebels occurred on Wednesday, July 3, just three days after two people died following the attack on a humanitarian convoy in the village of Kavunano, Lubero territory.

According to local sources, this humanitarian convoy was traveling from Lubero to Beni, via Butembo before falling into the hands of young people who have not yet been identified.

Up to ten people were killed on Wednesday, July 17, in a double attack attributed to ADF rebels in Kazaroho and Moliso, two villages in the Beni-Mbau sector (North Kivu). Material damage was also recorded during these attacks. Local civil society, which deplores this situation, is speaking so far of a provisional toll.

 The first attack took place around 9 a.m. in Kazaroho, a village located 85 kilometers northwest of the city of Beni. Here, seven people, including three women, were killed with knives. A few hours later, but this time in the afternoon, the second attack took place in the village of Moliso, where three people were killed.

 Two motorcycles and two houses were also burned by the attackers, says Kinos Katuho, the president of the local society:

 "The ADF NALU killed seven people on Wednesday morning around 9 a.m., including four men and three women. They burned two motorcycles and two houses in Kazaroho, a village located two kilometers from Mamove in the Beni-Mbau sector, where all the inhabitants of Oicha wanted to go to the Beu-Manyama market. Around 1 p.m. the same day, they killed other people in Moliso, in the same locality of Mamove.

 This civil society actor indicates that several other people were kidnapped by these ADF rebels.

Three other people were killed on the night of Monday to Tuesday by these same ADF rebels, near Mamove. 

In Beni territory, North Kivu province, recent attacks by ADF rebels in Babila-Bakaiko, a locality in the Beni-Mbau sector, have caused a tragic toll, with 3 to 37 people killed in the space of three days. Local civil society is also reporting considerable material damage and calling for joint FARDC-UPDF (Ugandan army) military operations in the region.

These repeated attacks by ADF rebels have been carried out in several villages in the locality of Babila-Bakaiko, in the Batangi-Mbau group, for three days. According to Kinos Katuho, president of the local civil society, several alerts had been issued concerning the presence of these rebels in the region, but they were not taken into account by the military authorities. According to him, in just three days, 37 people have been killed.

“The toll of the ADF attacks from Tuesday 16 to Thursday 18 July 2024 has increased from three to 37 people killed, with nine houses and seven motorcycles burned, and several people missing. This Friday morning, the ADF continues to kill civilians in Nzakia. We call on the military authorities to launch operations in the Beni-Mbau sector, particularly in the Batangi-Mbau group. We request joint FARDC-UPDF operations,” says Kinos Katuho.

This civil society actor specifies that this assessment remains provisional, because many people were abducted by the attackers and still do not respond to the call until this Saturday morning, July 20. The army has not yet communicated on these incidents. However, the FARDC soldiers deployed in the region began to pursue the rebels, who headed towards the west of National Road number 4, according to local civil society.

Two lifeless bodies of a couple were discovered on Monday, July 15, in the village of Bandundundu, Mambasa territory (Ituri).

CIVILIANS REPORTS OF BANDITS DISGUISING AS ADF TERRORISTS

According to the New Congolese Civil Society (NSCC), these victims were killed by armed bandits while they were working in their cocoa field.

The coordinator of this structure, Babombi Edela, attributed this assassination to certain inhabitants who disguise themselves as pseudo ADF rebels, with the aim of stealing rural products, particularly cocoa.

She condemned this practice which according to her, is becoming common in this region.

Babombi Edela Mussa thus called on the security services to put out of harm's way those people who are disturbing the peace of the already martyred population:

"  The New Congolese Civil Society of the Babila Babombi chiefdom in the Mambasa territory once again calls on the population to resist the men of ill will who disguise themselves as ADF to plunder our fields by harvesting rural products such as cocoa in the East of Biakato  ."

This civil society actor indicated that the number of victims has risen to three in the space of a week in Bandundundu.

  demonstration of young people demanding weapons and military training to fight ADF and M23/RDF terrorists. Kinshasa reacted, General Evan, northern front sector commander, accompanied by a strong delegation including deputies from Beni went to the site.

“We must now secure ourselves against terrorists, more than 10 years of massacres is already too much” declared a demonstrator.

The African Union mission in Somalia says it’s investigating allegations that its forces were involved in the killing of Somali civilians on July 17 at a farm just outside the town of Bulo Marer, Lower Shabelle region.

 

The Minister of Foreign Trade, Julien Paluku Kahongya, suspends for a period of 12 months the importation of beers and soft drinks throughout the territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

 

The measure emanates from its order temporarily suspending the importation of beers and soft drinks, signed on June 26 and made public this Thursday, July 18, 2024. The Minister of Foreign Trade warns that products imported in violation of the provisions of this order will be returned or destroyed at the offender's expense.

However, it promises exemptions to economic operators in the event of a supply need in areas where consumers have difficult access to local products.

Another decree published that same Thursday also prohibits the importation, for a period of 12 months, of gray cements and clinkers, this time in the West and South-East part of the DRC. However, the two orders do not affect any imports carried out in accordance with trade agreements.

The Secretary General of Trade, the General Directorate of Customs and Excise (DGDA), the Congolese Control Office (OCC), the General Directorate of Migration (DGM) and the Directorate of the National Border Hygiene Program (PNHF) are responsible for ensuring the application of these orders.

Julien Paluku motivates his decision by the desire to reduce the import bill, protect local industry and increase its performance as well as fight against import fraud which still persists at border posts in the DRC.

Patrick Muyaya says that the DRC gorvenment is still waiting for clarification from Uganda on the UN experts report

 

M23 drops another in Bweramana killing 4 including a FARDC soldier

 After dropping a bomb which caused the death of 4 people and injured others, this morning, intense fighting between the M23 rebels supported by the Rwanda and the FARDC with the Wazalendo are reported in Ndumba, Kabase, Mushirwa.

Yet another bomb has just fallen at Bweremana killing 1 soldier FARDC on the spot and injuring 8 other people including 4 soldiers, 3 civilian mothers and a child.

The population, which had resisted for several months, is beginning to worry about the deterioration of the security situation in the area.

According to our information on site, the rebels of M23 are less than 5km from Bweremana.

A total of 85 inmates escaped from the Manono central prison, located in the province of Tanganyika, on Sunday, July 14, 2024.

The news was confirmed to  the media on Monday by the interim administrator of the Manono territory, Germain Mwamba. He claims that the escape took place around 8 p.m. local time.

"According to the information we have received, there is a case of 85 escapees. It was around 8:05 p.m. that this escape took place. In the course of their manoeuvres, these prisoners dug a hole in a cell. And that hole was driven in to destroy the foundation of the prison as well as the foundation of the fence until all the prisoners had escaped," he explained.

On Wednesday, June 26, at least 20 inmates, including 16 civilians and a soldier, escaped from the same prison.