Up to 124 Christians have been killed in a spate of targeted Islamist violence in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The most deadly attack took place on 8 September, and Islamic State online media claimed that ‘100 Congolese Christians’ were killed in Ntoyo village, Lubero District.
Local media reported a minimum death toll of 72 (26 at a funeral service along with 46 other villagers), with one resident who counted the bodies quoted as having seen 102 victims.
‘It’s horrible what I saw,’ a local church minister who visited the scene told Barnabas Aid. ‘They killed almost all the people who were gathered at the place of mourning.’
Another 18 Christians were captured and killed by the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) near Oicha, Beni District.
Three others died in the same region, while another was killed elsewhere in Lubero District.
ISCAP is known to have murdered around 550 ‘infidel Christians’ in northeastern DRC since Christmas 2024.
At least 34 were killed in an attack on a church service on 28 July, followed by a published demand for Christians to convert to Islam, accept a subjugated status under Islamic rule, or face death.
ISCAP (then known as the Allied Democratic Forces) first pledged bay’a (allegiance) to the central Islamic State in 2017.
According to the Open Doors World Watch list, the DRC sits at number 35 of the 50 worst countries for persecution against Christians.
Open Doors says, ‘Even though most of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is Christian, believers are increasingly vulnerable to persecution.
‘Pastors and Christian leaders are targeted and harassed for their faith, especially in eastern Congo. Their families are also at risk.’
