By XINHUA

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Entering General Reference Hospital in Beni, north-eastern the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is not for the faint-hearted.

Here, almost every room is either teeming or overflowing with victims of bullet and machete attacks by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a terror group linked to the Islamic State.

The injured civilians, mostly women with gunshot and machete wounds, are desperate to live after literally crawling out of jaws of death. 

The majority of the patients, some with multiple bullet holes on their bodies, come from surrounding villages and towns in the Beni, the region that has borne the brunt of ADF atrocities.

Kambale Ushindi, a 21-year-old young man hospitalised since January, was struck by two bullets— one in the foot and the other in the neck, in an ambush by ADF rebels on his ride to Ituri.

Ituri is a neighbouring province where the rebels make aggressive and undiscriminating moves against the defenceless.

Not all passengers on aboard were lucky enough to escape by the skin of their teeth.

"I went to pick up a family member whose vehicle was ambushed a few hours before leaving for Ituri Province. I was hit by two bullets while trying to escape from the same ambush", he recalled.

Next to Kambale's bed, another wounded man, whose right hand was amputated by the rebels during the attack on his village of Oicha last December. Oicha lies a few kilometres from the city of Beni.

During the attack, Patrick Mbusa also lost three family members, including his wife.

"We were surprised by the attack in the middle of the night in our village. The rebels fired several shots and started massacring other people with machetes," said 41-year-old man, who managed to crawl his away out despite his injuries.

"Our vehicle fell into the ambush of the ADF rebels on the road to the city of Komanda, on the border with the province of Ituri. Our vehicle was burned a few minutes after the driver was shot dead," testified Justin Paluku, another injured person who has already spent a few weeks in the crowded hospital.

Paluku was shot in the foot while hiding in the bush.

With rising number of brutal attacks by the rebels, in particular a suicide bombing in the middle of Christmas celebration last December at Beni's downtown, the hospital is facing unprecedented pressures due to flooding and overcrowding of the patients seeking treatment and refuge.

Makeshift tents have been erected at the bare ground of the hospital's yard by the International Committee of the Red Cross, to accommodate more patients.

Frederico Silvio Martoglio, emergency manager of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Beni, told Xinhua that the increasing attacks by ADF have resulted in overcrowding— putting the hospital under a great deal of pressure.

The rise of atrocities also comes at a time DRC's armed forces (FARDC) and Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) have jointly stepped up operations against several ADF rebel bases, mostly hidden in the Beni Forest.

Since the start of joint military operations in Beni territory in November 2021, several ADF rebel bases have been demolished, with hundreds of rebels neutralised or captured, according to the two armies.

In January 2022, the UPDF announced the second phase of the joint operation, and began deploying the Ugandan soldiers to the battlefield in the Ituri Province, further advancing on the ADF rebel group.

Active in this northeastern part of the country for decades, the ADF rebels have intensified attacks against civilians, despite the state of siege declared by the Congolese government in two northeastern provinces since last May.

The rising attacks prompted the DRC to authorise the UPDF on its soil to bring the atrocities to an end.

In an interview with Xinhua during the launch of the joint operations last December, General Muhanga Kayanja of UPDF stated his determination to destroy "once and for all" the rebels of the ADF, a nightmare for the African Great Lakes region.