At least six people killed as suicide bomber strikes restaurant in Beni city near the DRC’s eastern border with Uganda.
A suicide bomber has struck a restaurant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) eastern city of Beni, killing at least five people and himself, according to officials.
“There were five people killed in the explosion, plus the bomber, making six,” mayor Narcisse Muteba Kashale told Reuters news agency on Saturday.
Congo’s government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on Twitter the explosion had indeed been caused by a suicide bomber, and that security forces were investigating the incident.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
“Loss of human life has been reported. The security services have already been deployed and the first measures have been taken,” Muyaya said on Twitter.
The AFP news agency earlier said its correspondent saw the remains of at least three bodies at the site of the blast, the In Box restaurant.
Kashale, who is also a police colonel, said at least two of the victims were children. Wounded survivors were taken to the local hospital, he said.
“Investigations are under way to find the perpetrators of this terrorist attack,” he told The Associated Press news agency.
Beni, near the DRC’s eastern border with Uganda, has been the site of regular clashes between the army and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), historically a Ugandan Muslim group.
In June, three bombs rocked the east of the country, with authorities warning they had reports more attacks were being planned.
In late November, the DRC and Uganda launched a joint operation against the ADF in the east of the country after Congolese troops struggled for months to quell bloody ADF attacks.
