BENI, Congo (BN24) — Rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group have killed at least 66 civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials confirmed Saturday, marking one of the deadliest massacres in recent months.
Fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist faction that pledged allegiance to IS in 2019, attacked villages in Irumu territory, Ituri province, near Congo’s border with Uganda.
Jean Tobie Okala, spokesperson for the UN mission in Ituri, described the assault as a “bloodbath.”
“Around 30 civilians were killed between Thursday and Friday, July 11, in Walese Vonkutu chiefdom,” Okala said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Based on information from civil society, the death toll has risen from 31 to 66 civilians killed.”
According to Marcel Paluku, head of a local civil society group, all the victims—including women—were hacked to death with machetes. The number of hostages taken remains unknown.
The ADF has long operated on both sides of the Congo-Uganda border. Authorities suspect the massacre was retaliation for a series of aerial bombardments carried out by Congolese and Ugandan forces since last Sunday.
Though the total strength of ADF fighters in Congo is uncertain, the group has a deep-rooted presence across Ituri and North Kivu provinces, where it routinely ambushes civilians, burns villages, and abducts children.
Eastern Congo has been plagued for decades by violence from multiple armed factions. The attack comes as Congolese forces inch toward a potential cease-fire with the M23, a separate insurgency backed by neighboring Rwanda.
The ADF emerged in the 1990s in Uganda before crossing into Congo, where it later declared allegiance to Islamic State. Its fighters have since launched increasingly lethal attacks, including raids approaching Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city.
Rights organizations and UN investigators have accused the group of slaughtering hundreds and forcibly recruiting civilians into its ranks. In December, ADF militants killed at least 10 people and abducted several more in North Kivu province.
Muslims account for roughly 10% of Congo’s population, most of them living in the country’s troubled eastern regions.
