Bodies recovered after deadly attack in Eastern Congo

After yet another violent attack in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, relatives gathered at a local health center Thursday to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.

Local residents said the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State-allied extremist group known by its acronym ADF, attacked the Kikundo mining site, near the border between North Kivu and Ituri provinces on Wednesday.

“Among the victims was my brother-in-law, who was a gold miner. Everyone here was a gold miner. They were found doing their work; they were slaughtered like animals,” said Musubao Kiwanza.

The violence in Ituri and North Kivu provinces has raged for decades, coming into the spotlight again last year when Rwanda-backed M23 rebels took over the eastern capital of Goma. Several armed groups operate in the mineral-rich region.

But recently, the violence has hindered the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak, leaving many areas inaccessible to response teams, and keeping residents cut off from health clinics.

A nurse at a local health center said he saw eight bodies arrive from the scene of the attack.

“All of these victims were killed with machetes. None died from gunshot wounds. They had their throats slit while their hands were tied,” said Fiston Ndeze.

In nearby Mununzi, where other victims were brought from the mining site, local resident Obed Kasereka counted bodies lined up on a tarp. He said there have been a series of small-scale deadly attacks in the region in recent weeks.

"From the 10th until today, at least 19 people have been killed, here in Mununzi as well as in Njiapanda-Bela,” he said.

Deaths in Congo’s Ebola outbreak passed 1,000 Wednesday, according to numbers released by the health ministry Thursday morning.

The outbreak was declared on May 15 after spreading undetected for weeks. Experts say the first nine weeks of this outbreak have been worse than any other Ebola outbreak on record.