The merciless slaughter of at least 40 people—21 of them at a prayer vigil—in a machete attack in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Sunday is part of a systematic and escalating campaign of terror, an expert has warned. The massacre in the rural town of Komanda, Ituri province, is believed to be the work of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist group closely affiliated with Islamic State.
According to UN sources, more bodies were later found in nearby burned-out homes and businesses. Some victims remain unidentified. The Open Doors Foundation supports persecuted Christians worldwide by providing practical aid, advocacy, and spiritual support in regions where they face oppression or violence for their faith. While the incident has drawn international attention due to the brutality of the assault, Illia Djadi, a senior researcher for Open Doors who specialises in freedom of religion in sub-Saharan Africa, said the world was ignoring the broader pattern of violence.
He said: “The killings are very strategic. They are attacking defenceless rural farming communities, where there’s no security presence.
“Most of the time they’re using machetes, beheading people, in the dead of night not to attract attention. They are massacring village after village, community after community.”
Mr Djadi claimed that the recent spotlight on a proposed peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda—brokered by US President Donald Trump—was drawing political focus away from the ADF’s killing spree.
He said: “There’s no attention on the activity of ADF and the ongoing massacres.
“This power vacuum has allowed them to continue the slaughter unchecked, and often unreported.”
He continued: “The ADF have a very clear aim: they want to turn a large part of DRC into an Islamic caliphate, like the horrific one instigated in Iraq and Syria in 2014 by Islamic State.
“We need to see a clear willingness and responsibility from the government to protect their citizens.
“And the international community also needs to wake up to what’s happening.
“The name may be different, but this is Islamic State at work.”
He added: “Around six million people have been killed over 30 years in eastern DRC, and eight million internally displaced.
“We must use all the means used to defeat IS in Syria and Iraq to defeat them again in Eastern DRC.”
Open Doors partner groups are already on the ground in Komanda providing emergency aid, medicine and trauma support to survivors.