A brutal overnight attack on a Catholic-run maternity ward in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has left roughly 20 people dead, including breastfeeding mothers and their infants, according to local authorities.
Officials have attributed the massacre to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist-affiliated rebel faction linked to the Islamic State.
The assault unfolded late Friday in the village of Byambwe, located in North Kivu province’s Lubero territory, where ADF militants raided a medical center operated by the Little Sisters of the Presentation.
Local administrator Col. Alain Kiwewa told The Associated Press that armed men stormed through the area, killing patients as they rested in their hospital beds and igniting the facility. “Women who were breastfeeding were brutally slaughtered and found with their throats slit in their hospital beds,” Kiwewa reported.
He said that 17 victims had been confirmed, including 11 women and six men.
The same fighters reportedly struck several nearby villages during the night, though officials indicated that the full number of casualties in those areas remained unknown.
The maternity unit suffered the most devastation, with witnesses recounting that mothers and newborns were burned alive as flames consumed the building. Homes near the hospital were also looted before being set on fire.
With the facility destroyed, survivors are being treated outdoors while the Little Sisters of the Presentation wait for security officials to determine when it will be safe to resume operations, according to reports from the Catholic outlet Aleteia.
Fr. Giovanni Piumatti, an Italian missionary who ministered in the Diocese of Butembo-Beni for half a century, stated that 15 victims were murdered inside the clinic and five more were slain nearby. He said the attackers were equipped with heavy weapons and swept rapidly through Byambwe before fleeing into surrounding forests, torching houses and stealing medical supplies in the process.
Now living in Italy, Fr. Piumatti emphasized that such atrocities are tragically common in the region and rarely garner the attention they deserve.
The ADF, which emerged from Ugandan rebel movements in the late 1990s, has operated across eastern Congo for more than 20 years and formally aligned itself with the Islamic State in 2017. The organization has repeatedly targeted schools, churches, farms, and health facilities in a series of deadly raids.
According to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, ADF remains the most lethal threat to civilians in the DRC, accounting for more than 1,000 deaths in 2023 alone.
The group continued its attacks this year, with United Nations officials confirming that at least 52 people were killed in ADF assaults in August and nearly 40 worshippers, including women and children, died when militants attacked a Catholic church in Ituri province during a July vigil.
Community leaders and clergy warn that instability across North Kivu and Ituri has left ordinary civilians bearing the heaviest burden. The region is home to numerous armed groups, including the ADF and the M23 movement, which local authorities suspect receives support from neighboring Rwanda.
