More than 30 killed in ADF attacks near Beni as Ebola patients flee clinics in eastern DRC

Rebel attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have left more than 30 people dead over the past few days, according to local accounts and officials, in violence that has also disrupted the response to an Ebola outbreak. The raids took place around Beni in North Kivu province, including villages near the city and the city itself. Witnesses and community leaders said homes and motorcycles were set on fire, civilians were kidnapped and people were killed in separate attacks.

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At least 10 people were killed in raids on the villages of Matété, Mamuli and Kitoho in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a community leader said. He said the number of dead was provisional and that the attackers also abducted civilians, with the total not yet known. In a separate attack just before midnight on Saturday, armed men entered Beni and caused widespread panic, with residents reporting beheadings and shootings.

Witnesses said more than 20 men, women and children were killed and dozens more were missing after people fled into the bush. The Allied Democratic Forces, a militia affiliated to Islamic State, has been blamed for the attacks. The group has stepped up assaults on civilians and the Congolese army in the Beni region, and civil society organisations say about 10,000 civilians have been killed by the armed group since 2014.

The military governor of North Kivu said three patients confirmed to have Ebola fled treatment centres in Beni after the Saturday attack. That has added to concern over the wider outbreak response in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, where 344 cases and 60 deaths had been recorded as of Wednesday. The violence matters because Beni is one of the centres of the current Ebola outbreak and the attacks have directly affected treatment and containment efforts.

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Ebola response teams depend on patients remaining in clinics, contact tracing and rapid isolation, all of which become harder when communities are displaced by armed raids. The disruption also comes in an area that has faced repeated insecurity, making public health work more difficult and increasing the risk of further spread. The ADF is a loose network of insurgents and bandits that has operated in eastern DRC for years and is also accused by Ugandan authorities of atrocities in neighbouring Uganda.

Beni has been under DRC military administration since 2021, reflecting the scale of insecurity in the area. The latest attacks add to a long-running pattern of violence in North Kivu, where armed groups have repeatedly targeted civilians and state forces. They also underline the overlap between conflict and disease response in eastern Congo, where health workers have had to operate in unstable conditions.

What remains unclear is the full death toll, the number of people abducted and the fate of those reported missing after the attacks. It is also not yet clear how many Ebola patients remain away from treatment centres or how the disruption will affect containment efforts in the coming days. Further official updates are likely to focus on security operations around Beni and the condition of the Ebola response in the affected provinces.

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