Divided into three macro-zones stretching from the Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea and into southern Africa, the objective of ISIS leaders is to create a caliphate on African soil. Entire provinces of Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Congo are already administered by fundamentalists who impose Islamic law and forced conversion, but who especially aim to exterminate the Christians living in those Regions.
The latest massacre of Christians in Africa is being carried out by an Islamist militia operating in the Ituri province, in the easternmost part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The target was a Catholic church in the territory of the Command, during a prayer meeting, and the latest toll is at least 43 people killed with firearms and machetes, including women, men and nine children.
About twenty worshippers were stabbed to death during the mass, while other bodies were found in houses and shops that had been burned down. The attack was claimed by a militia called the Allied Democratic Forces, better known as the ADF, a Ugandan Islamist group that in 2019 pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The group’s initial objective was to overthrow the Kampala regime, but since 2017 its religious motivation has taken precedence. Since 2020, the ADF has joined the creation of the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), a large political-military project that encompasses a territory stretching from the Great Lakes Region to the coast of Mozambique.
The declared, but only seemingly final, defeat of the Islamic State in the Middle East in 2017 changed the objectives of this international terrorism network, which focused on the African continent.
Divided into three macro-zones stretching from the Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea and into southern Africa, the objective of ISIS leaders is to create a caliphate on African soil. Entire provinces of Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Congo are now administered by fundamentalists who impose Islamic law and forced conversion, but who especially aim to exterminate the Christians living in those Regions. Ugandan followers of the Islamic State had not struck since last February, when they killed 23 people in Mambasa, also in the martyred province of Ituri. In eastern Congo, the Christian community has been the target of attacks for years and the ADF has claimed two other overnight attacks since the beginning of the year, in which at least 70 people have lost their lives. According to United Nations data, these militias have killed over 7.000 civilians since 2014, becoming one of the bloodiest and most organized militias in the country, with private funding from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The objective of this ISIS wing is to terrorize the population and take control of the territory, where the central state presence is completely absent.
The ADF manages several mines from which they illegally extract minerals. They smuggle them into Uganda, along with wood and natural resources, using the locals as slaves. Christians, who make up over 90 percent of the Congolese population, are their main target, with kidnappings and forced conversions, especially of young women.
Aimé Lokana Dhego is the parish priest of the burned village and when he speaks, his voice still trembles: “The church is a pile of rubble, we were singing when they came. Now our young people have been killed and kidnapped, we seek peace and we cannot understand all this hatred. But we want to rebuild the parish and start again from the faith that can save us.”
Dieudonné Duranthabo, a civil society representative in the Command territory, is among those who have dug up the graves for the bodies: “The massacre began around midnight, they split into small groups and simultaneously attacked the church and the surrounding houses, a strategy they use to disorient the population who do not know where to flee. We are still recovering the bodies, many of them chopped up with machetes, because some were chased into the forest, while others were kidnapped and killed while fleeing. They started the previous day by killing 5 people in the neighboring village of Machongani. We do not even know how many people have been kidnapped, because many have already abandoned the village for fear that the terrorists will return. I consider it absurd that there is a large number of security forces in this territory and no one has managed to intervene; an immediate military effort is needed, because the ADF are still near our village.”
Congolese security forces intervened only after noticing smoke coming from the apartments at around 2 a.m., but they were unable to catch the attackers. All activities in the city have been suspended and many residents, seized by panic, have already fled.
Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, spokesman for the Congolese army in Ituri province, reiterated the commitment of the armed forces: “These terrorists continue to attack defenseless civilians, this shameful act against the parish of the Command is a desperate attempt to distract attention from the joint military operation with the Ugandan army targeting the militant group. But we will continue to pursue these criminals to their last stronghold. We call on the population not to flee and to remain vigilant, notifying us of any suspicious movements.” Since the end of 2021, Kampala and Kinshasa have launched the military operation Shujaa (which means Brave in Swahili), but to date the results have been negligible and have instead allowed Uganda to take control of another part of this agonizing giant called Congo.