Congo said Saturday that 14 suspected Islamist militants and two soldiers were killed in fighting on New Year’s Day as the Congolese army backed by U.N. peacekeepers regained control of Loselose village in the east of the country.The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group that has emerged as the most lethal of the militias in Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern borderlands, has carried out several attacks in recent weeks.”Yesterday Jan. 1, an army regiment overpowered the terrorists of the ADF in the village Loselose and dislodged them from the area located in the chiefdom of Ruwenzori,” army spokesman Antony Mualushayi said.A local official said on Friday that the ADF was responsible for the killing of 17 people who were found hacked to death in Beni Territory in North Kivu.More than 1,000 civilians have been killed in attacks attributed to the ADF in 2019 and 2020, according to U.N. figures.Mualushayi said seven soldiers were wounded during the fighting in Loselose, also in Beni Territory. The United Nations mission in Congo said its troops helped Congo’s army regained control of Loselose.
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