DR Congo: suicide bomber kills at least five in a restaurant

A suicide bomber struck a restaurant in the city of Beni in east Congo on Saturday, killing at least five people as well as himself, local officials said.

“The suicide bomber, prevented by security guards from entering a crowded bar, activated the bomb at the entrance of the bar,” the regional governor’s spokesman, Général Ekenge Sylvain, said in a statement.

Général Ekenge said that insurgents from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group linked to Islamic State, had activated a “sleeper cell” in Beni to target citizens, but he did not provide evidence connecting them to the explosion.

The ADF did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack.

Authorities in DR Congo and Uganda jointly launched a military operation in the area at the end of November against the ADF, blamed for bombings in the region.