Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed its first attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday, and declared it the “Central Africa Province” of the “caliphate,” after two Congolese soldiers and a civilian were killed in a gunfight, Al-Jazeera reported.
The three died in clashes on Tuesday in Bovata, near the town of Beni, a source at the UN peacekeeping mission and a civil society leader told Reuters news agency. The town and the surrounding area have been simultaneously beset by armed violence and an Ebola epidemic.
There are more than a dozen different armed groups and criminal outfits operating in this area of eastern DRC. ISIL also claimed a higher toll of five soldiers killed and three wounded.
The UN source and a local civil society leader, David Moaze, said witnesses at the scene of the attack had blamed an armed group called the Allied Democratic Front (ADF), which may have links to ISIS
