BENI, DR Congo, March 9 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 people were killed in an overnight incursion by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), said the army Thursday.
The ADF rebels, who carried out an attack in the village of Mukondi, located in the Beni territory of the eastern North Kivu province, confirmed Anthony Mwalushayi, a Congolese army spokesman in the Beni region.
The spokesman said it had deployed reinforcements and managed to push the rebels back deep into the Beni forest. Fighting is still ongoing to find the hostages held by the rebels in the bush.
The ADF was founded in the 1990s by several opposition movements in Uganda. Defeated by the Ugandan army, these rebels remained active in eastern DRC, which led to joint operations between the DRC and Uganda to hunt down the ADF rebels, who are now also an affiliate of the Islamic State in central Africa. ■