Ugandan Allied Democratic Force [ADF] rebels on Saturday shot a plane belonging to the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DR Congo [MONUSCO].

This was during an offensive by Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo [FARDC] against the rebels ADF around Camp Madina (40 km NE of Beni), in the “Triangle of Death” North Kivu province.

Since the beginning of 2020, MONUSCO supported the evacuation of 41 injured soldiers and the recovery of 10 bodies of Congolese soldiers killed in action.

On January 4, a helicopter from MONUSCO was fired at upon landing.

A bullet hit the hull of the aircraft, but no injuries were reported.

“All humanitarian support flights by MONUSCO for Operation Sukola I have been suspended due to the current security situation,” the mission said.

At the close of 2019, eighteen people in eastern DR Congo’s troubled region of Beni were killed by a notorious armed group.

ADF militia made an incursion in Apetina-Sana and hacked 18 civilians to death.

Apetina-Sana is 16 kilometres (10 miles) west of Oicha, the chief administrative town in the Beni region.

It is a point on the so-called Death Triangle, along with Mbau and Eringeti — the worst-hit area for attacks.

ADF fighters have killed more than 200 people since the army launched an offensive against the militia on October 30, 2019.

There have also been demonstrations in the city of Beni, where local people accuse the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO of failing to protect them.

The ADF began as an Islamist rebellion hostile to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

It fell back into eastern DRC in 1995 and appears to have halted raids inside Uganda.by agencies