BENI CITY, Democratic Republic of the Congo — Allied Democratic Forces fighters attacked the village of Mbau during the night of June 2, killing at least 24 Christians including a local pastor and his wife, according to preliminary reports from International Christian Concern. Mbau lies about 12 miles from Beni City in eastern DRC’s North Kivu province.
The massacre came just days after another overnight ADF assault nine miles away in the village of Ngadi on May 30, which left 15 dead. In less than a week, the Islamist militant group has killed more than 40 people in attacks targeting Beni City and the surrounding territory. Several civilians were reportedly abducted during the assaults and remain in captivity.
The ADF, an Islamist armed group with pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, has operated in eastern Congo for decades, targeting Christian communities in a region nominally under the protection of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), the Ugandan People’s Defense Force (UPDF), and United Nations peacekeepers from MONUSCO. The repeated strikes in the same area despite the presence of three separate security forces have drawn sharp criticism.
Edgar Mateso, a political analyst and political philosopher, called the situation deeply troubling. “It is not normal for the enemy to operate twice within the same area without being stopped, while the area is under the full control of the regular army, supported by the UPDF (Ugandan army) and MONUSCO peacekeepers,” he said. Mateso argued that the repeated attacks reveal serious shortcomings in the current security strategy and require an urgent response from authorities in Kinshasa. “Ending the activities of these violent militants should no longer be viewed as a secondary mission but rather as one of the nation’s highest priorities,” he said.
Kasereka, a Baptist pastor in Beni, described the weight the violence places on the Christian community. “For Christians in North Kivu, these massacres are yet another reminder of the insecurity that has plagued the region for years and has hindered the mission we are carrying out,” he said. Community leaders say the psychological toll on residents is becoming increasingly severe as families search for missing relatives and live under constant fear of further attacks.
Mateso said the government must fundamentally rethink its approach to the ADF threat in eastern DRC, arguing that without a thorough review of military operations and security governance, the people of North Kivu will continue to suffer under a conflict that has lasted far too long. The fate of the civilians abducted during the latest assaults remains uncertain.