Another Muslim leader shot dead in eastern DR Congo

A Muslim leader was shot dead after evening prayers Tuesday in Beni, in the troubled east of Democratic Republic of Congo, local community leaders said, the second such killing this month.

"Sheikh Moussa Djamali was shot as he was coming back from evening prayers," Donat Kibuana, the administrator of the Beni territory said.

"An unidentified person shot him and then ran off," he added.

Mustapha Machongani, the Beni representative of the Congo Islamic Community (Comico) confirmed the killing.

Djamali was the leader of the Mavivi mosque, 10 kilometres (six miles) from Beni and not far from the city's airport and the UN peacekeepers' base.

On May 1, another local Muslim leader, the imam of the city's mosque, Sheikh Aliamini, was assassinated in the same manner, said Machongani.

"The shooter aimed for the head," he said.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) -- which the United States brands a "terrorist organisation" affiliated to the Islamic State group -- has been accused of murdering more than 1,000 civilians since November 2019 in and around Beni.

The ADF is the bloodiest of scores of armed militias that roam the mineral-rich zone, many of them a legacy of two regional wars from 1996 to 2003.

The government of DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi placed North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province under a 30-day "state of siege" on May 6.