BENI:A suicide bomber struck a restaurant in a city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, causing fatalities, officials said, the latest violence in a region where Congolese and Ugandan forces have launched a campaign against Islamists.
“Loss of human life has been reported. The security services have already been deployed and the first measures have been taken,” Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on Twitter, without saying how many had died.
He said the blast in the city of Beni had been caused by a suicide bomber.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
Congo and neighbouring Uganda launched a military campaign in the area at the end of November against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group aligned with Islamic State. Officials have previously blamed the group for bombings in the region.
Beni’s mayor Narcisse Muteba Kashale earlier told local radio that a bomb had exploded in the city centre. “For safety, I’m asking the population to stay home,” the mayor said.
A Reuters journalist nearby said he heard an explosion around 7 p.m., just after the afternoon Catholic mass, near the city’s main road, followed by gunshots.
Images shared on social media showed dozens of green chairs scattered across a road, some melted or smouldering. Three bodies could be seen among the wreckage. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the images.
The joint Congolese and Ugandan campaign, launched on Nov. 30, had planned to target four ADF camps, including two in the Beni area, a Ugandan general had said earlier this month.
Beni was rocked by two explosions in June at a Catholic church and at a busy intersection. No one was killed in either blast apart from the suspected bomber, who was killed by the second explosion.
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