‘Anything to stop the massacres’: peace still eludes DRC as armed groups proliferate

Tanzanian UN peacekeepers in Eringeti to escort road workers back to their base. Uganda has been helping repair roads but locals are suspicious of the neighbouring country’s motives Photograph: Ed Ram/The Guardian

For the past three months, Ugandan forces have been bombarding Islamist rebels in its border region with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The offensive, in the Rwenzori mountain range that straddles both countries, has forced many Congolese to leave their homes and move to the cities for shelter.

Sarah Kasanga* is one. The Allied Democratic Force (ADF) militia stormed Kalingathe, her village north of Beni, in December 2019. People were made to lie on the floor while rebels searched homes for food, pots, money or clothes.