7 peacekeepers killed in clashes near Ebola-hit part of east DRC

GOMA, Congo - At least seven U.N. peacekeepers were killed in clashes with militias in an area that is at the centre of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s worst Ebola epidemic, United Nations and diplomatic sources said on Thursday. “Our peacekeeping colleagues tell us that six peacekeepers from Malawi and one from Tanzania who are part of the U.N. peacekeeping operation in the DRC ... were killed yesterday, in Beni territory, in North Kivu,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. Eastern Congo has been plagued by banditry and armed insurrections for more than two decades since the fall of military ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, but the past year has seen a surge in violence around North Kivu. Beni and the surrounding villages are also suffering an Ebola epidemic that has infected over 300 people and killed twothirds of them. This makes it the third worst outbreak ever, after a 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, when 28, 000 people were infected, and in Uganda in 2000, when there were 425 cases. Repeated armed attacks by at least two rebel groups are hampering international efforts to contain the virus, by preventing medical workers getting to Ebola victims. Meanwhile, a U.N. spokesman said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “called on all armed groups to stop their destabilising activities, which continue to add to the suffering of the population and complicate the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak.” The joint operation was launched on Tuesday against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group rooted in Ugandan jihadism and blamed for a series of attacks in the region. The offensive aimed at Kididiwe, about 20km from the city of Beni, said General Bernard Commins, deputy head of the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO. The ADF, operating in North Kivu province near the Ugandan border, has been blamed for the deaths of hundreds of civilians since 2014 as well as of 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers last December. On Monday, MONUSCO’s head, Leila Zerrougui, sounded the alarm over violence in the DRC’s east, warning it threatened hopes for staging trouble-free elections on December 23. MONUSCO has around 17, 000 members, making it one of the UN’s biggest peacekeeping operations. Created in 1999, it has an annual budget of $1.153 billion.

Beni and the surrounding villages are also suffering an Ebola epidemic that has infected over 300 people and killed twothirds of them.