Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) fighters posing as mourners killed more than 60 people at a wake in Ntoyo, North Kivu province, on September 8, 2025, according to a report published May 4 by Amnesty International.

The report, titled “I’d Never Seen So Many Bodies,” documents eight ADF attacks across North Kivu and Ituri provinces and concludes the group’s actions constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. Amnesty conducted 71 interviews, including 45 with direct survivors and witnesses.

The ADF, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019 and now operates as its Central Africa Province, exploited a security gap created by the advance of the Rwanda-backed March 23 Movement (M23). M23’s advance forced the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) to redeploy.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) operated under a 15% budget reduction that necessitated a 25% cut in personnel, severely limiting its ability to respond to ADF attacks.

“Civilians in the eastern DRC have suffered extensive brutality at the hands of ADF fighters,” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said. “These abuses constitute war crimes which the world must not continue to ignore.”

Civilians in the eastern DRC have suffered extensive brutality at the hands of ADF fighters. They have been killed, abducted and tortured in a dehumanizing campaign of abuse.

These abuses constitute war crimes which the world must not continue to ignore. As part of widespread… pic.twitter.com/gLSChzUpvO

— Amnesty International USA (@amnestyusa) May 5, 2026

Rawya Rageh, Amnesty’s crisis response researcher and the report’s author, told The Telegraph that “the vast majority of the ADF’s victims have been Christians,” adding that the group’s statements directly reference Christians as targets.

In November 2025, ADF fighters attacked a health center in Byambwe, killing at least 17 civilians and torching four wards. “You couldn’t stand,” one survivor said. “They shot at anything that moved.”

In April 2026, Uganda’s military said FARDC and Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) troops rescued at least 200 captives from an ADF camp along the River Epulu.