BENI, Democratic Republic of the Congo (BN24) — At least 89 Christians were massacred by jihadist militants in a series of brutal attacks in eastern Congo, including dozens slain during a funeral service, officials and advocacy groups said.
The killings occurred Monday night in North Kivu province, a region long plagued by violence from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an ISIS-linked extremist group. According to Open Doors, an organization monitoring global Christian persecution, 70 victims were killed while attending a funeral service, with others later found dead in the villages of Potodu and Ntoyo.
The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks militant activity, confirmed to Reuters the death toll had risen to nearly 100. Many villagers remain missing.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the ADF, also known as the Islamic State Central Africa Province. The group has been linked to a string of deadly assaults across the region, including an incident in July when 49 Christians were killed in the village of Komanda while praying for peace. Another 66 victims were reported killed earlier this year in Irumu.
“They arrived and started killing,” said Rev. Mbula Samaki, speaking to an Open Doors partner from the scene. “Those who tried to flee were shot dead, and others were killed with machetes.”
Verified footage viewed by Fox News Digital showed the horrific aftermath, including the bodies of women and children strewn across the ground. In one image, victims appeared to have had their hands tied behind their backs. Audio captured the cries of surviving family members.
A regional Open Doors partner, speaking anonymously due to safety concerns, said the scale of the violence is far greater than what is being publicly reported. “If we take just August, there have been over 10 documented attacks,” she said, noting that many others go unreported, with multiple villages sometimes attacked simultaneously.
“The people, they say, ‘We are tired, when will this come to an end?’” she added. “You can find a family where two or three members have been killed, or a child whose both parents have been killed. So it’s pain. It’s agony.”
The eastern region of Congo is home to a majority Christian population and has been under sustained assault by Islamist militants who, according to local observers, are intent on driving Christians from their land and suppressing their faith.
Despite efforts by Congolese forces to push back, residents and local leaders say the response has been largely ineffective. One source told Fox News Digital that government action remains “largely insufficient” to stop the ADF’s escalating violence.
While President Donald Trump announced a peace deal for the DRC in June, sources say its impact is mostly limited to the area surrounding Goma, far from the sites of these latest atrocities.
A spokesperson for the Trump administration condemned the attacks, telling Fox News Digital: “The Trump administration condemns in the strongest terms this horrific violence against Christians in the DRC and is committed to advancing the Washington Accords to bring peace back to the region and end targeted killings.”
One Christian leader with direct knowledge of the region urged U.S. officials to match their support for Ukraine with similar attention to Congo. “Maybe they can mount pressure on the DRC government and even support them to address these ADF attacks more properly,” he said.
“If these people — these powers that be — can just see this as a family, as a child whose father no longer lives, if they can see it not as incidents but as people, then maybe something will change,” he added. “Everybody deserves to live.”
