At Least 33 Civilians Killed in Night Raid on Village in Congo's North Kivu; Health Post Torched, Ebola Patients Flee
BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo - Armed men raided the village of Cantine-Aloya in eastern Congo's North Kivu province late on Thursday, November 5, killing at least 33 civilians, setting fire to a health post and forcing patients with confirmed and suspected Ebola infections to flee, local officials and civil society groups said on Friday, November 6.
The attackers struck at about 11 p.m. local time in the village, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the town of Beni. Colonel Charles Omeonga, the Beni territorial administrator, told Reuters the fighters were from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group recognised by Islamic State as an affiliate, and that they set fire to several houses and killed civilians. He said heavy rain had hampered army operations and investigations, so a final death toll could not yet be established.
Tchetche Aliamini, a local civil society leader, told Reuters that 33 bodies were recovered after the attack, most bearing gunshot wounds, while others had been burned or hacked with machetes. Justin Paluku, head of a local civil society organisation, told The Associated Press: 'So far, we have counted 33 bodies and more than 50 houses set on fire, along with various other forms of material destruction.'
The attackers also set fire to the village health post. North Kivu is a hotspot of the Ebola outbreak now coursing through Congo, and confirmed and suspected patients fled the facility during the assault, disrupting follow-up care and isolation work.
The ADF began as a Ugandan rebel movement before moving into eastern Congo. It pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019 and has since been blamed for repeated attacks on civilians in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. In July 2025, the group killed 66 people in eastern Congo in an attack the United Nations described as a 'bloodbath.'
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：联合国刚果（金）稳定特派团（MONUSCO）部队在北基伍省 Kashuga 一带巡逻（资料图，非本次袭击现场）。图片来源：MONUSCO Photos，经 Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 2.0。 / Photo: MONUSCO troops on patrol in the Kashuga area of North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo (file photo, not the scene of this attack). Source: MONUSCO Photos via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
