KINSHASA, DRC – A series of coordinated overnight attacks carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an insurgent group with ties to the Islamic State, has left at least 40 civilians dead in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s border region adjacent to Uganda, local civil society representatives confirmed Friday. The violent incursion unfolded between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, striking multiple rural communities across two of eastern Congo’s conflict-torn provinces. According to Charité Banza, head of the Ituri civil society collective, and Kinos Katua, an on-the-ground group member, 25 civilians were killed in border villages within Beni territory, North Kivu, while an additional 15 fatalities were recorded in neighboring Ituri province. Local activists warn the final death toll is expected to climb, as dozens of residents remain unaccounted for following the attacks, which also saw insurgents burn down residential structures and loot civilian property. The ADF, a rebel movement originally formed in Uganda that pledged formal allegiance to the Islamic State network in 2019, has waged a low-intensity insurgency in the shared border region of the two countries for decades, with frequent attacks targeting unarmed civilian populations. The latest bloodshed comes just weeks after Amnesty International released a damning report this week accusing the ADF of systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilian communities in eastern DRC. This attack is one of the deadliest claimed by the group since July 2025, when an ADF assault left 66 civilians dead in eastern Congo—a massacre the United Nations labeled a deliberate “bloodbath.” The DRC is already grappling with one of Africa’s most complex and protracted conflict crises, with roughly 120 active rebel and insurgent groups operating across its eastern territory. The most significant threat to state control currently comes from the M23 rebel movement, which is backed by Rwanda and has seized control of multiple major strategic cities and large swathes of territory in North Kivu over the past two years, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
Islamic militants attack Congo villages near Uganda, killing 40 people, local group says
