Islamic State-Backed Militants Slaughter 20 in Eastern Congo Village Massacre
The military in the Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed that at least twenty people were killed in a brutal weekend attack by Islamic State-backed rebels on a village in the volatile eastern region. The assault occurred early on Saturday in Mambimbi-Isigo village, situated within the Lubero territory of North Kivu province.
Military Confirms Details of Deadly Assault
Colonel Alain Kiwewa Mitela, a military administrator, provided confirmation of the attack details to The Associated Press on Monday. He stated that the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) carried out the violent raid, which has resulted in significant civilian displacement, further worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in the area.
Local civil society activists reported a particularly harrowing sequence of events. According to their accounts, the rebels first raided several farmers' fields before turning their weapons on defenseless civilians, attacking them with both knives and firearms. There has been no immediate comment or claim of responsibility from the ADF itself following the massacre.
Provisional Death Toll and Missing Civilians
Kinos Kitwa, who heads the civil society organization in Bapere, emphasized that the death toll remains provisional. "This toll is still provisional because many civilians are missing," Kitwa stated, while also criticizing what he described as an insufficient presence of Congolese army troops in the region to provide adequate protection for vulnerable communities.
The attack forms part of a broader pattern of violence plaguing eastern Congo. Armed groups, including both the ADF and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, have executed numerous deadly assaults in recent months. The ADF, which formally pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019, operates primarily along the border with Uganda and has repeatedly targeted civilian populations in its campaigns of terror.
Escalating Violence and International Response
According to data from the North Kivu Provincial Civil Society Coordination, ADF fighters have been responsible for the deaths of at least sixty-two civilians since the beginning of the year in the Beni and Lubero territories alone. This latest attack coincides with a two-day official visit to eastern Congo by U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who began his trip on Monday with stops in Beni, an area that has been particularly devastated by ADF violence.
The ADF has a long and bloody history in the region. Originally formed in Uganda during the late 1990s by various small groups opposed to President Yoweri Museveni, the militia relocated to neighboring Congo in 2002 following Ugandan military strikes. Since then, the group has been blamed for the killings of thousands of innocent civilians. In a particularly deadly series of attacks in July 2025, the ADF was responsible for massacres that claimed more than one hundred lives.
