Officials Say at Least 44 Killed in Congo Assault

At least 44 people were killed in an assault in the Democratic Republic of the Congo carried out by a group loyal to the Islamic State, officials said, according to The New York Times.

Earlier reporting by Reuters described a raid by Islamist militants on a village in the eastern part of the country. In that raid, the militants forced Ebola patients to flee. Ebola is a serious viral disease, and the people affected were being treated for it when the attackers arrived.

The eastern provinces have seen repeated violence in recent years. In Ituri Province, at least 4,034 internally displaced people, meaning people who have fled their homes but remain within their own country, were reported to be leaving because of insecurity. Those displacements followed attacks by what was described as the presumed ADF, an armed group that has operated in the region.

The Ebola threat is separate from the attack, but the two have become linked. A British healthcare worker infected with Ebola was being medically evacuated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Britain for specialist treatment, Reuters reported, citing a UK document.

Officials have not, in the reporting so far, given a full account of how the attack unfolded or how many of the dead were civilians.