Suicide bomber causes deadly blast at DRC restaurant: Official | News

At least three 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 three people, according to officials.

“Loss of human life has been reported. The security services have already been deployed and the first measures have been taken,” Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on Twitter on Saturday, without saying how many had died.

He said the blast had been caused by a suicide bomber. Heavy gunfire rang out shortly after the bomb went off, with panicked crowds fleeing the city centre.

The AFP news agency said its correspondent saw the remains of three bodies at the site of the blast, the In Box restaurant.

Mayor Narcisse Muteba 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.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

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.