IS-Linked Militants Kill at Least 33 in Raid on Ebola-Hit Village in Eastern DR Congo

At least 33 civilians were killed when armed men raided a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday night, in an attack that also forced patients with Ebola to flee a hospital into the surrounding countryside.

The attackers struck Cantine, a village about 50 kilometres west of the town of Beni in North Kivu province, at around 11 p.m. local time on 5 November 2026. They shot and hacked villagers, set fire to more than 50 houses and a health post, and sent hundreds of people running into the dark — including 180 patients from the local hospital, among them one confirmed Ebola case.

Local authorities and civil society groups blame the Allied Democratic Forces, known as the ADF, an armed group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019. It is one of the deadliest attacks in eastern Congo in months, and it happened in the middle of one of the worst Ebola outbreaks the country has ever seen.

What happened in Cantine

Cantine — also called Cantine-Aloya — sits on the road west of Beni, in territory that has lived under the shadow of the ADF for years. The attack began late on Thursday night, when most of the village was asleep.

According to the Reuters news agency, which reported from Beni on Friday, the attackers killed at least 33 civilians and set fire to several houses and a health post. Beni’s territorial administrator, Colonel Charles Omeonga, told Reuters that the ADF was behind the raid.

Two local civil society leaders counted the same toll independently. Tchetche Aliamini confirmed to Reuters that 33 bodies had been recovered, most of them with gunshot wounds, while others had been burned or hacked with machetes. Justin Paluku, the head of another local civil society group, gave the same count of 33 bodies to the Associated Press, and said more than 50 houses had been set on fire.

The official death toll has not yet been established. Colonel Omeonga told Reuters that heavy rain had hampered army operations and investigations in the area, which is why the authorities could not yet confirm a final figure.

Early reports put the toll lower. The United Nations aid coordination office, OCHA, cited local sources as saying at least 30 civilians had been killed overnight in Beni Territory. Another civil society leader gave a provisional count of 24 while the attack was still being assessed. The figure of 33, counted by two separate civil society leaders and reported by both Reuters and the Associated Press, is the most recent and most widely reported number.

The Ebola danger: patients forced to flee

The most alarming part of the attack may not be the death toll. It is what happened at the hospital.

When the attackers set fire to the health post, patients fled the Kelekele Hospital Centre in Cantine. The hospital’s medical director, Christian Kakule, said 180 patients fled, including suspected Ebola cases and one confirmed Ebola case.

The head doctor there, Christian Kakule Vulembera, told Reuters that among those who fled were one confirmed Ebola patient and five suspected cases, three of them high-risk contacts — people who had been in close contact with someone infected and are therefore at serious risk of carrying the virus themselves.

That is a dangerous development. Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, and a patient who disappears into the community can pass the virus on before anyone knows where they are. Health workers now face the difficult task of tracing people who fled in panic during the night, in an area where armed groups make movement dangerous and trust in the authorities is low.

North Kivu is at the centre of the current Ebola outbreak. The province accounts for almost half of all new infections in the outbreak, according to reports, and is the second most affected province after Ituri, where the outbreak began. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded more than 10,000 cases and 5,300 deaths across the DRC since the outbreak began.

The outbreak is centred on Bundibugyo, and it has been described as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak in history. North Kivu has been the epicentre of three previous Ebola outbreaks, including the 2018–2020 outbreak, which was the DRC’s largest and deadliest until this year.

In other words, the attack struck a community that was already fighting two battles at once: an armed insurgency and a deadly disease. The raid has now made both harder to fight.

Who are the ADF?

The Allied Democratic Forces began as a Ugandan rebel group in the 1990s, before moving its bases across the border into the forests of eastern Congo. Over time it became one of the most feared armed groups in the region, known for attacking villages at night, killing civilians with guns and machetes, burning homes, and abducting people.

In 2019, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL or ISIS. The Islamic State recognises the ADF as an affiliate, and the United States government refers to the group as ISIS-DRC. The group has been under United Nations sanctions, and the United States sanctioned it in 2014 over atrocities against civilians.

The ADF’s fighters have repeatedly targeted civilians in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province, using killings, abductions and the burning of homes to terrorise communities. In July 2025, the group killed 66 people in eastern DRC in an attack the United Nations called a “bloodbath”.

The group operates in the border region between Uganda and the DRC, an area of dense forest where it is hard for the Congolese army and United Nations peacekeepers to track fighters. Despite years of military operations against it, including joint operations by the Congolese and Ugandan armies, the ADF continues to carry out deadly raids on villages.

A region caught between war and disease

Eastern Congo is one of the most violent places on earth. Dozens of armed groups operate in North Kivu and Ituri, fighting over land, minerals and power. Civilians are caught in the middle. Villages are attacked, people are displaced, and health services that are already weak are damaged or destroyed.

The Ebola outbreak has made everything worse. Ebola treatment centres and health workers have been attacked in past outbreaks, and some communities are suspicious of health workers, partly because of rumours and misinformation, and partly because the same state that sends doctors also sends soldiers.

When a health post is burned and patients scatter, the outbreak does not pause. It spreads. Contact tracers must find people who have fled, often without phones, addresses or transport, in an area where roads are bad and armed men control the forests. Every day a patient remains untraced is a day the virus can move silently from person to person.

The raid on Cantine is a reminder of how war and disease feed each other. Violence destroys the health system that is needed to contain an outbreak. An outbreak, in turn, weakens communities and makes them easier targets. Breaking that cycle is one of the hardest problems in global health — and it cannot be solved by doctors alone.

What happens next

The Congolese army is investigating the attack, but heavy rain has slowed its work, and no official death toll has been released. Health officials will be trying to trace the patients who fled the Kelekele Hospital Centre, including the confirmed Ebola case and the suspected cases. That work is urgent: the sooner the patients are found and isolated, the smaller the chance of new infections.

The United Nations mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, and the Congolese army are under pressure to protect villages in the Beni area, where the ADF has struck again and again. But the group has survived years of offensives, and villagers in North Kivu have heard promises of protection before.

For the people of Cantine, the immediate future is grim: homes burned, neighbours buried, and an Ebola outbreak that has just become harder to control. The attack will be counted in the toll of the dead. Its full cost — in new infections, in displaced families, in a health system set back again — will only become clear in the weeks to come.

Frequently asked questions

Where did the attack happen?

In Cantine, also called Cantine-Aloya, a village about 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of Beni in North Kivu province, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

How many people were killed?

At least 33 civilians, according to two local civil society leaders who counted the bodies. The official death toll has not yet been established, because heavy rain hampered the army’s investigations.

Who carried out the attack?

Local authorities and civil society groups blame the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019. The group is recognised by Islamic State as an affiliate and is known to the US government as ISIS-DRC.

Why does the attack matter for the Ebola outbreak?

The attackers set fire to a health post, and 180 patients fled the local hospital, including one confirmed Ebola case and five suspected cases. Patients who disappear into the community can spread the virus before health workers can find them. North Kivu already accounts for almost half of all new Ebola infections in the DRC’s current outbreak.

How bad is the Ebola outbreak in the DRC?

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded more than 10,000 cases and 5,300 deaths across the DRC since the outbreak began. North Kivu is the second most affected province after Ituri, where the outbreak is centred.

Sources

• Reuters, “Islamist militants force Ebola patients to flee in deadly Congo raid”, 6 November 2026: https://srnnews.com/islamist-militants-force-ebola-patients-to-flee-in-deadly-congo-raid/
• Al Jazeera, “Armed men kill at least 33 in village in Ebola-hit eastern DRC”, 6 November 2026 (via syndicated copy): https://stkittsgazette.com/armed-men-kill-at-least-33-in-village-in-ebola-hit-eastern-drc/
• UN News / OCHA, “World News in Brief: Civilians killed in DR Congo”, 6 November 2026 (via syndicated copy): https://dailyzonereport.com/event/17955/at-least-30-civilians-killed-overnight-in-eastern-dr-congo

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.