On February 13th, Islamic militants rounded up 70 Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), took them to a church, and then beheaded all 70 of them.
The militants are suspected to be members of the Islamist “Allied Democratic Forces.”. Human rights organization Open Doors reported:
Militants went door by door saying, ‘Get out, get out and don’t make any noise,’ said an elder. ‘Twenty Christian men and women came out, and they tied them up for an unknown destination.’
After the 20 were taken, the rest of the village was agitated and began to try to figure out how to free the people who had been abducted. They gathered together to develop a plan, but by the time they met, militants had surrounded their village. Open Doors sources report that the extremists captured about 50 other Christians and tied them up.
All 70 captives were taken to a Protestant church in Kasanga where they were killed inside with machetes or hammers.
Field sources say that even several days after the attack, some families had not been able to bury their dead because of the insecurity in the region. Many Christians have fled the area to somewhere deemed safer.
Located south of the Sahara in Central Africa, the DRC is the largest country in the sub-Saharan region. Its population is approximately 100.5 million people. Around 95% of the population identifies as Christian.
Despite the country being predominately Christian, in its 2025 World Watch List, Open Doors ranked the DRC as the 35th worst place for Christians. This ranking stems from the fact that armed groups in the eastern regions of the country are targeting and killing Christians. Hundreds of Christians have been raped or otherwise sexually harassed in the DRC for faith-related reasons.
The Islamist terror group ravaging DRC is ISIS (Islamic State)’s regional affiliate in the country. The group is also known locally as Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen (City of Monotheism and Jihadists‒MTM).
The Islamic State calls Congo its “Central Africa Province.” The United States designated ISIS-DRC as a foreign terrorist organization in 2021.
The Allied Democratic Forces have been operating in the DRC since 1995. Originally, the group’s stated goal was to overthrow the government of Uganda and establish an Islamic state there. But in recent years, there has been a significant shift in the terror group’s rhetoric and ideology toward a broader focus on Islamism.
The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) reported in 2024:
An Islamic extremist group called the Allied Democratic Forces that has pledged allegiance to ISIS is attacking and killing Christians in the DRC. Christians, particularly in the eastern part of the country, are being ruthlessly murdered, abducted, and raped. Churches in that part of the DRC are being attacked. Further, the terrorists kidnap Christian women, rape them, and forcibly marry them to keep the women as ‘trophies.’
Because of the violence in this region, many Christians have been forced to leave their homes in order to seek refuge. According to Eale Bosela, the regional director for the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa, ‘[t]he Eastern Congo has become a theater of violent extremism’ and ‘[p]eople are being massacred like animals.’
The scale of attacks by Islamic militants in the country is alarming: Christian villages have been burned down, and pastors, priests, and lay Christians have been abducted by the Allied Democratic Forces and other armed factions. From Kinshasa, the capital, to the central Kasai Province and the eastern North Kivu Province, churches, convents and Christian schools have been vandalized and looted by militiamen. Hundreds of Christian-owned businesses have been ruined by this and other armed groups.
In areas controlled by the Allied Democratic Forces, travel and access to education are difficult for Christians, and any expression of Christian faith is dangerous. Driven by its Islamist ideology, the group targets Christians who openly display their faith, often subjecting them to abductions, severe beatings, or even killings.
In 2024, the terror group intensified its attacks on Christian communities. In June 2024, for instance, over 80 Christians were killed in a series of assaults on villages in the eastern provinces.
One coordinated attack on June 7 resulted in the beheading of 60 Christians in the Masala villages of North Kivu province.
On June 12, another Islamist attack in the village of Mayikengo resulted in the deaths of 42 Christians. The militants used firearms and machetes to carry out the massacre.
From January to June 2024, Islamic militants killed 639 Christians in various incidents, including beheadings and shootings, primarily in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, according to a report released by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Abductions and sexual violence against Christians are also widespread in the country. According to the findings of the research conducted by Open Doors:
- Christian women and girls living in areas controlled by Islamic radicals face violent persecution for their faith. They are vulnerable to abduction, rape, trafficking, and sexual slavery.
- Church leaders who speak out against violence are particularly susceptible to brutal attacks. If captured, they could face maiming, abduction, forced labor, sexual mutilation, and death.
- Christian women also experience persecution through denial of inheritance, access to their children, and vulnerability to forced marriage. Girls as young as 12 are forcibly married, often subjected to early pregnancies, and face domestic violence due to entrenched cultural practices.
- Many women are used as human shields during conflicts. The persecutors sometimes put women (sometimes pregnant) and small girls in front, knowing that they cannot be easily shot.
- Christian men face violent and extreme forms of persecution, including maiming, abduction, forced recruitment into militia groups, forced labor, sexual mutilation, disemboweling, and brutal killings. While women and girls face the highest rates of rape, men and boys also face sexual violence.
- In areas by Allied Democratic Forces, Christian children can be abducted from school or forced to learn Islamic scriptures.
- Underreporting and restricted access to certain regions mean the actual scale of the crisis is likely much greater.
Ryan Brown, the CEO of the Open Doors US, told europeanconservative.com:
The DRC government has been struggling to maintain control and provide security for many years, especially in the eastern regions. Much of the country is remote and has been at war (with over 100 different armed groups) for over 50 years. There is also evidence of interference from neighboring countries, and corruption within the DRC government.
Sadly, given the longstanding instability in countries like the DRC, it is tempting for reporters sometimes to view the latest developments as old news. But this does not make the impact any less real on Christians who are trying to live normal lives and practice their faith unharmed. We call on anyone who is moved by these tragedies to join us in praying for their safety.
