Dozens of Pygmy citizens slaughtered by Islamist militia in DR Congo: “Impotent government does nothing”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Forty-six Pygmies were slaughtered by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) Islamist militia group in Ituri province in eastern DR Congo on Thursday, the Defense Post reports. Described as a “terrorist group” by International Christian Concern (ICC), the ADF is accused of slaughtering over 1000 Congolese citizens in the last year.

In a statement Friday, local NGO leader Gili Gotabo said: “ADF rebels overran the village of Abembi [in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom]. Forty-six people died and two were wounded, all of them from the Pygmy community.” This death toll was confirmed by the province’s interior minister, Adjio Gigi, the Defense Post reported. It is not clear whether the Pygmies were attacked specifically for their ethnicity.

According to the United Nations, the ADF has murdered over 1000 people since the beginning of 2019. Many of those killed were Christians, including pastors and people who refused to convert to Islam, ICC said.

Referring to an ineffectual government response to ADF terrorism, local NGO Movement for Change said in a statement: “Instead of halting the killings and neutralizing the assailants, the military operations have dispersed the assailants over quite vast areas, and they are continuing to massacre civilians as they pass through.”

“ADF continues to cause chaos and devastation across the country, while the impotent government does nothing,” ICC noted in its report.

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