Armed Group Attacks in Congo Kill 44

An armed group with links to ISIS has attacked areas in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 44 people.

According to AFP on Saturday (14 November 2026), the latest series of attacks in Ituri province, in the north-east, were carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) just days after the group, known for its extreme brutality, killed 66 people — including three health workers trying to respond to the expanding Ebola outbreak in the area — in an attack in neighbouring North Kivu province.

Between Monday (9 November) and Thursday (12 November), the ADF attacked several villages in the Mambasa area of Ituri, a province long plagued by insecurity and where the deadly viral haemorrhagic fever outbreak was first detected six months ago.

This week’s attack sites are about 100 kilometres away in a straight line from Cantine-Aloya in North Kivu province, where the group had previously killed at least 66 civilians and set fire to three health facilities.

The attacks prompted World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to warn that chronic instability in the region was “one of the biggest obstacles to the response to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, six months after the latest outbreak began.