Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has seen a surge in brutal violence this year, with more than 300 civilians killed in attacks attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels. According to the United Nations, the majority of these killings occurred in Ituri and North Kivu provinces, with a particularly deadly assault striking the village of Ngadi, near Beni, between May 30 and 31.
Local authorities confirmed the devastating toll of that overnight raid: 15 civilians and one soldier lost their lives, marking one of the most violent episodes in a recent wave of attacks. In just three days, the ADF rebels carried out multiple strikes in the Beni region, leaving over 40 civilians dead, based on reports from regional sources.
The ADF rebels, active in eastern DRC since the mid-1990s, have long been a source of instability, responsible for thousands of civilian deaths over the decades. Their affiliation with the Islamic State (IS) in 2019 further escalated their threat, with the group publicly aligning itself as the Islamic State’s
