Suspected rebels kill 13 in DR Congo attack

Residents leave Kibati and Kibumba village in the Democratic Republic of Congo following clashes between government troops and rebel forces on May 24, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 08 July 2022
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Suspected rebels kill 13 in DR Congo attack

  • The ADF has been accused of massacring Congolese civilians and carrying out terrorist attacks in neighboring Uganda

BENI, DR Congo: Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels have killed 13 people and torched a clinic in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said Friday.
Kasereka Ise Mighambo, the mayor of Lume in North Kivu province, said ADF fighters entered the town Thursday night and burned down a health clinic, killing four patients inside.
He added that the militants killed nine more civilians before retreating into Virunga National Park, a world-renowned wildlife haven in Congo’s conflict-torn east.
Local nurse Kule Bwengue also said health authorities had registered 13 deaths in the attack.
A Congolese army spokesman, Captain Antony Mualushayi, reported the loss of nine lives, including those of three children.
He added that an armed group “that supports ADF terrorists” conducted the raid.
AFP was unable to independently confirm the details of the attack.
Claimed by the Daesh group as its Central African offshoot, the ADF has been accused of massacring Congolese civilians and carrying out terrorist attacks in neighboring Uganda.
The DRC and Uganda launched a joint offensive against the ADF in November 2021 to crush the rebels, but violence against civilians continues.
More than 120 armed groups roam eastern DRC.


Russia hits Ukraine with drones, missiles, kills at least 10 in Kharkiv

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Russia hits Ukraine with drones, missiles, kills at least 10 in Kharkiv

  • Zelensky said that Russia launched 480 drones and 29 missiles targeting the energy sector and railway infrastructure
  • “There should be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life“

KHARKIV, Ukraine: Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight on Saturday, damaging infrastructure and killing at least 10 people, including two children, in the northeast city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia launched 480 drones and 29 missiles targeting the energy sector and railway infrastructure across the country.
“There should be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life,” Zelensky said on the Telegram app.
“Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure, ⁠and therefore support should ⁠continue,” Zelensky said, urging partners to continue air defense and weapons supplies.
Ukrainian air defense units shot down 453 drones and 19 missiles, the air force said. But nine missiles and 26 attack drones hit 22 sites, it said.

BALLISTIC MISSILE SLAMS INTO RESIDENTIAL BUILDING
The city of Kharkiv was targeted by both Russian drones and missiles, and 10 people, including two children, were killed after ⁠a Russian ballistic missile slammed into a five-story residential building, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
“When we arrived here 20 minutes after the explosion, I thought I was going to have a stroke. I couldn’t string two words together, and my legs were buckling,” Hanna, a resident of the destroyed building, told Reuters.
“It’s good that I wasn’t there with my child and that my father was with me. It was ordinary people who lived there. What were they targeting?“
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces carried out massive overnight strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial complexes, military airfields and energy facilities, the Interfax news agency reported.
In ⁠Kharkiv, 15 ⁠people were also wounded, and 19 residential buildings were damaged by the Russian attacks, Syniehubov said.
Commercial and administrative buildings, electricity distribution lines, and cars were also hit, he said.
In Kyiv, three people were injured, and the heating was knocked out in 2,806 residential apartment buildings in four districts across the capital after Russian strikes hit an energy infrastructure facility, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
National grid operator Ukrenergo said that emergency power cuts were introduced in seven regions following the Russian attacks.
Ukrainian officials said that Russia also attacked four railway stations and other railway infrastructure in central Ukraine and port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region, setting on fire containers with vegetable oil and damaging a grain warehouse.