IS-backed rebels kill 17 in Congo hospital attack

An Islamic State-backed rebel group has killed at least 17 people, including nursing mothers, in a brutal hospital attack in eastern Congo, authorities said.

Speaking to the Associated Press, local administrator Colonel Alain Kiwewa said that the attack by the Allied Democratic Forces took place in Byambwe village on Friday night.

“Breastfeeding women were brutally murdered and found with their throats slit in hospital beds,” Kiwewa said, adding that 11 women and 6 men were killed.

Samuel Kakule Kagheni, a civil society leader in the Manzya region that includes Byambwe, said rebels also attacked other villages but could not confirm the death toll there.

Armed groups have carried out several deadly attacks in eastern Congo, including the ADF and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

The ADF, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019, operates along the Ugandan border and frequently targets civilians.

In August, ADF fighters killed at least 52 people in multiple attacks in the same week, according to the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo.

The group also killed nearly 40 people in July when it stormed a Catholic church during a vigil in Ituri province and opened fire on worshipers, including women and children.

The ADF was formed by different small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following dissatisfaction with President Yoweri Museveni.

Following military offensives in Uganda in 2002, the group moved into neighboring Congo and was blamed for the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Meanwhile, Congolese and Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 signed a framework agreement on Saturday for a peace deal to end decades of conflict in eastern Congo, but tensions between the two sides remain.

The head of the M23 delegation, Benjamin Mbonimpa, said in a video published on