Islamist rebels have beheaded seventy Christians in a church building in Lubero territory, North Kivu province, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
At around 4 am on 13 February suspected militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist rebel group affiliated to Islamic State, approached homes in the village of Mayba and ordered: “Get out, get out and don’t make any noise.” Twenty Christian men and women came out and were captured, and the militants later surrounded the village and captured another fifty Christians. All seventy were taken to a Protestant church building in Kasanga, also in North Kivu province, where they were beheaded with machetes. Many Christians have fled the area in fear of further attacks.
An elder from a group called the CECA20 (the Evangelical Community in Central Africa) commented, “We don’t know what to do or how to pray; we’ve had enough of massacres. May God’s will alone be done.”
Muhindo Musunzi, director of a primary school that belongs to the CECA20, said that even before the attack churches, schools and health centres had closed because of the ongoing security situation.
Christians comprise 95% of the population of DRC but the ADF and other armed Islamist groups increasingly target Christian leaders and their families, especially in the east of the country, and attack churches or shut them down. The ADF, which is also known as Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), has reportedly killed nearly 6,000 Christians since it affiliated to IS in 2017.
Open Doors’ World Watch List 2025 reports an escalation in ADF attacks on Christians in 2024. DRC has risen six places to number 35 in the latest edition of the World Watch List, which reports that 355 people were killed for their faith in DRC in 2024 compared with 261 in 2023, and that an estimated 10,000 Christians were internally displaced, ten times more than in 2023. Houses have been looted and burnt, church buildings, health facilities and schools forced to move or close and several Christian villages have been abandoned.
Commenting after the massacre, Open Doors’ Senior Analyst for Freedom of Religion or Belief in sub-Saharan Africa Illia Djadi stated, “This was not just an act of terror. It was a targeted massacre of Christians, and it will not stop here. The ADF is part of a growing extremist network that wants to wipe out Christianity in the region. If nothing is done, more attacks will follow. The chaos created by [rebel group] M23 has opened the door for the ADF to continue its campaign of terror with total impunity. Christians in the region have been abandoned. They are completely unprotected, and the world is not paying attention.”
M23 Movement
The rebel group M23 is also causing chaos in northeast DRC, where fighting between its militants and the Congolese military has left hundreds dead and forced many to flee, with hospitals overwhelmed.
The Rwanda-backed group, also known as the March 23 Movement, takes its name from a peace agreement signed on 23 March 2009. It officially formed in 2012 and rapidly gained territory in the North and South Kivu provinces, seizing North Kivu’s capital, Goma – the militants were forced to withdraw following widespread international condemnation.
M23 regrouped and has surged in recent years, seizing control of eastern DRC’s two largest cities in the past month. On 26 January, M23 militants took over Goma, followed by Bukavu (capital of South Kivu province) on 17 February. Goma is a city of over a million people and an important trade and transport hub, and many of its churches had to cancel services after M23 took control.
ADF kills over 230 Christians since Christmas
In addition to the Christians killed in the massacre in Lubero, Barnabas Aid reports that ADF killed at least 89 Christians in northeast DRC in the past month, the majority in Ituri province, and that the terrorist group has been responsible for the deaths of at least 237 Christians since Christmas 2024. The worst day of the spate of violence was 2 February, when 28 Christians were killed in attacks on three villages near Ndalya in Ituri province, while on 29 January nine Christians were killed and around thirty houses burned down in Lubero, North Kivu province.
(Barnabas Aid, BBC, Open Doors, World Watch List 2025)