KINSHASA, DR Congo — The United Nations has condemned a deadly attack in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province that left at least 66 civilians dead, in one of the latest mass killings blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist armed group linked to the Islamic State.
Jean Tobie Okala, spokesperson for the UN mission in Ituri, described the assault as a “bloodbath” after initial reports of about 30 deaths were revised sharply upward. “Based on information from civil society, the death toll has risen from 31 to 66 civilians killed,” Okala said, referring to attacks that took place between Thursday and Friday, July 11, in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom of Irumu territory.
Local civil-society leader Marcel Paluku said victims including women — were killed with machetes, and the number of people abducted remains unclear. The ADF, originally formed in the late 1990s in neighbouring Uganda, has long operated across the porous Uganda–Congo border and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019, according to UN and security reporting.
Authorities and local monitors suspect the Ituri killings may have been carried out in retaliation for an escalating joint military campaign by Congolese and Ugandan forces, including air and ground strikes, launched days earlier against ADF positions. Uganda and DR Congo have run joint operations against the ADF in recent years as attacks spread across North Kivu and Ituri, repeatedly targeting villages and key road corridors.
The massacre underscores the persistent insecurity gripping eastern Congo, where multiple armed groups operate alongside — and sometimes compete with — each other. While international attention has often focused on the M23 rebellion in North Kivu, violence attributed to the ADF has intensified in areas near the Ugandan border and periodically expanded toward strategic centres, driving displacement and humanitarian need.
Recent incidents illustrate the cycle: in another Irumu attack reported weeks later, at least 25 people were killed in an ADF-linked raid, according to a local rights group.
UN officials urged strengthened civilian protection and faster responses to early-warning alerts from communities, warning that without sustained security pressure and credible accountability, rural populations will remain exposed to recurring mass violence.
