Amid ongoing insecurity in the area, at least 17 people were injured on Wednesday when a bomb exploded in a market in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to officials.
The bomb exploded in the Macampagne market in Beni where “at least 17 people were wounded and were taken to medical facilities,” said Tharcisse Katembo, head of the blue-collar district.
“A young man left a green plastic bag… promising to come back and get it. About three minutes later, the bag exploded, injuring people including myself and the customers who had come to grind their cassava,” Dany Siauswa, manager of a mill business, told newsmen.
According to Joseph Kakule, a prominent member of the local civil society, the shrapnel injured at least 19 persons.
One of the most unstable regions in the east of the DRC, which has experienced unrest for almost 30 years, is the Beni region.
Around 15 people were killed on January 15 in an attack at an evangelical Protestant church in Kasindi, close to the Ugandan border, which was attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group linked to jihadists from the Islamic State group.
At least 23 villagers are said to have been killed on Monday by the militia. The Islamic State organisation made the attack its own.
Since the end of 2021, a joint Congolese-Ugandanese military campaign has been aimed at the ADF in the area. But the attacks go on.