At least 22 civilians have been killed in an overnight attack in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with local sources blaming the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels — an armed group with confirmed links to the Islamic State in Central Africa. The attack took place between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in Beu Manyama, a town in the Beni territory of North Kivu Province, where assailants used machetes and other bladed weapons, leaving most victims found decapitated.
The attack is among the deadliest recorded in the region in recent months, and comes as ADF fighters have been intensifying their campaign of violence against civilian settlements across Ituri and North Kivu provinces. The group, originally a Ugandan rebel movement that relocated to eastern Congo, has operated with relative impunity in the forest and mountainous areas of the region for years, exploiting weak state presence and the distraction of other armed factions to carry out mass killings.
Congolese and Ugandan forces have been conducting joint military operations against the ADF since November 2021, with some success in degrading the group’s command structure and disrupting its supply lines. However, the continued frequency and brutality of ADF attacks suggest the operations have not been sufficient to neutralise the threat. The group’s cells remain active across a large geographic area, and intelligence officials say ADF commanders have been increasingly relying on guerrilla tactics and the targeting of remote villages far from the main theatres of the joint operations.
The attack in Beu Manyama follows a pattern that has become characteristic of ADF violence: a night-time incursion into a settlement, simultaneous strikes on multiple targets including a health centre, and the use of edged weapons to maximise casualties and psychological impact. Local community leaders say the death toll could rise as rescue teams reach more remote areas and as families report missing persons.
International observers have warned that the violence in eastern Congo remains chronically underreported relative to its scale. Health facilities in the region often lack the capacity to document casualties accurately, and many attacks occur in areas with limited communications infrastructure.
The ADF’s stated ambition to establish a caliphate-linked territory in the region has brought increased international attention to the group, but that attention has not translated into a reduction in violence on the ground. Analysts say the Congolese government faces a structural challenge: the ADF’s safe areas are deep inside forests and mountains that span the Congo-Uganda border, making sustained military pressure difficult to maintain without an unsustainable commitment of resources.
For the residents of North Kivu and Ituri, the attack in Beu Manyama is another entry in a long and grim catalogue of violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands, disrupted agriculture and access to markets, and eroded basic social services in some of Africa’s most impoverished territories.