The Democratic Republic of the Congo was the scene of a deadly attack on Christmas Day. The latest report communicated by the authorities shows eight dead and twenty wounded.
The suicide bomber set off his bomb on Saturday, December 25, Christmas Day, in a restaurant in downtown Beni, a town located in the province of North Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The authorities immediately accused the rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) of being responsible for the attack.
“At present, the provisional toll shows eight dead including a captain of the 22nd brigade who was at the restaurant with his wife and children”, as well as the suicide bomber, said at a press conference Patrick Muyaya , Minister of Communication and spokesperson for the Congolese government.
Taking stock of the wounded, the minister added that the attack had left “20 wounded including two young girls, two young boys, two women fractured in the lower limbs, two women seriously injured.”
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As for the suicide bomber, “his identification is difficult,” said Lieutenant-General Constant Ndima, military governor of North Kivu. “We were only able to recover his head. He was completely torn apart by the explosion. But we will get there because we have a database that will allow us to identify it, ”he added.
Lieutenant-General Ndima invited “his constituents to be strong and vigilant because no part of the country will be ceded to the enemy ADF who wants to install a caliphate in the Great Lakes region”. North Kivu and the neighboring province of Ituri have been under a state of siege since early May, an exceptional measure that gave full powers to the military but has so far failed to stop the abuses by armed groups.
The deadliest group in the DRC, the ADF are also accused by Kampala of being responsible for recent attacks on its soil, claimed by the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS), which presents this group as its province in Central Africa (Iscap) . Since November 30, the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been carrying out joint operations against the ADF.
