{"id":82392,"date":"2020-07-07T14:47:28","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T06:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=82392"},"modified":"2020-07-07T14:47:30","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T06:47:30","slug":"dr-congo-militia-killed-800-in-18-months-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=82392","title":{"rendered":"DR Congo militia killed 800 in 18 months: UN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/inter-09-3.jpg\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/inter-09-3.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>KINSHASA, July 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; A notorious militia has killed nearly 800 civilians in eastern DR Congo since the start of last year, the UN said, adding that the attacks may amount to crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) has committed \u201cwidespread, systematic and extremely brutal\u201d rights abuses, according to a report by the UN\u2019s Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in DR Congo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between Jan 1 last year and Jan 1 this year, the report documented the killing of 496 civilians \u2014 142 women, 25 children and 329 men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe majority of the victims were killed using bladed weapons or were shot,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over that period, human rights cases attributed to the ADF \u2014 killings, abductions, forced labour and attacks against hospitals and schools \u2014 rose by 67 percent compared with the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bloodshed has continued this year, the report said, with 297 people killed between Feb 1 and June 30. \u201cEntire families have been hacked to death,\u201d it said, adding that in most attacks there was \u201ca clear intention to leave no survivors\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUnder international law, the human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law committed by ADF combatants could constitute, by their nature and scope, crimes against humanity and war crimes,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ADF is one of dozens of militia groups operating in eastern DR Congo, a legacy of the two Congo wars in the 1990s that pulled in neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group originated in neighbouring Uganda but moved to DRC in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 2000s, it has focused on establishing a \u201cbusiness network\u201d with people in the security apparatus of DR Congo, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, the Congolese army launched a campaign against the group that led to an \u201cintensification of deadly attacks\u201d by the ADF, the UN report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It said the attacks also intensified in part because of the redeployment of the security forces of the UN\u2019s DR Congo mission MONUSCO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report said DR Congo forces had also committed human rights violations, including the extrajudicial killing of eight civilians. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KINSHASA, July 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; A notorious militia has killed nearly 800 civilians in eastern DR Congo since the start of last year, the UN said, adding that the attacks may amount to crimes against humanity. The ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) has committed \u201cwidespread, systematic and extremely brutal\u201d rights abuses, according to a report by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":82394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82392"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}