A suicide bomber killed at least five people by detonating his bomb on Saturday in Beni, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where provincial authorities accuse rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group, in an official statement. “The suicide bomber, prevented by security guards from accessing the bar crowded with customers, activated the bomb at the entrance. the still provisional toll shows six dead, including the suicide bomber, and 13 wounded admitted to local hospitals», Wrote Brigadier General Sylvain Ekenge, spokesperson for the military governor of North Kivu. A few minutes after the explosion, an AFP correspondent saw three shredded bodies.
The bomb exploded inside the restaurant “In Box“, Located in the center of the city of Beni, where more than thirty people celebrated Christmas, according to two witnesses interviewed by AFP. Debris of chairs, tables, glasses and bottles are strewn around the restaurant.
“I was sitting there. There was a parked motorcycle. Suddenly the motorcycle took off, then there was a deafening noise», Testified to AFP Nicolas Ekila, host of a radio station in Beni, present at the time of the explosion. A police vehicle transported the injured to a medical center not far from the site of the explosion, which was immediately isolated.
Many abuses
On June 27, the explosion of a homemade bomb in a Catholic church injured two women. The same day, the bomb carrier was killed in the explosion of his device near a bar and not far from a mosque. The day before another machine had exploded, not far from a gas station, without causing damage. The authorities accused the ADF rebels of being responsible for these attacks in the town of Beni.
North Kivu and Ituri have been under a state of siege since early May, an exceptional measure which gave full powers to the military, but which has so far failed to stop the abuses of armed groups. In these two provinces of the DRC, the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been carrying out joint military operations since November 30 against the positions of the rebels of the Ugandan group of Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
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) .