At least 22 civilians were killed during a raid on the Mwenda village of the Beni territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday, January 4th. According to local officials and UN peacekeepers, the attack was perpetrated by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group that has been targeting civilians of eastern DRC for decades. The militants attacked residents of the village using machetes and guns, kidnapping at least a dozen other villagers in the process. This attack comes only a week after another suspected ADF raid on a nearby village, which left an estimated 25 people dead.

Donat Kibwana, Beni territory’s administrator, confirmed the death toll and the ADF’s role in the raid. He told the Agence France Presse (AFP) that “ten other people have been injured, and others are unaccounted for. The army intervened after the crime was committed.” He also told the AFP that nine more bodies had been found in another nearby village, in a separate attack that was likely carried out by the same militia group. “Now we live in total fear, with no certainty about the future,” the village’s civil society leader, Jeremi Mbweki, told Reuters by phone.

In a statement issued by his Spokesman, UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned the attack, calling “for the perpetrators of these atrocities to be swiftly brought to justice,” and urging the DRC authorities “to take concrete steps to address the drivers of conflict in the east of the country.” As a country that is rich in natural resources, the DRC has long been plagued by violence and insecurity as a result of the illicit exploitation of its natural resources. This has led to violent altercations between armed groups, with innocent civilians often paying the price.

The ADF, which was originally based in western Uganda, has been operating since the 1990s and has since expanded into the DRC’s North Kivu province. It is one of the most lethal militia groups in the DRC’s eastern borderlands, and has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians over the past few years. Despite repeated military offensives against the ADF by both the army and UN peacekeeping forces, it has continued to ravage through the DRC, killing more than 1,000 civilians since 2019. Monday’s attack was the second mass killing perpetrated by the ADF in a week; more than 25 civilians were murdered in the village of Tingwe on New Year’s Eve, also located in Beni territory, not far from the Mwenda village. “Our region is a powder keg, a cemetery. We live in a dying house while the authorities are disinterested,” said Fulbert Kasairo, one of the local officials.

These repeated attacks have left civilians terrified, and caused massive displacements of those living in villages towards more secure areas in an attempt to protect themselves. As the ADF and other rebel groups continue to attack villages in the region, there must be a dramatic increase in security presence. By the time the army intervened in Monday’s attack, it was too late — this can not be the case. Thousands have died at the hands of these rebel groups, and it is time for more rigorous preventative and offensive measures, or some sort of peace talks, to be put in place.