Rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group killed 66 civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said, according to the AP report.
The attack was attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, a Ugandan Islamist group that operates on both sides of the porous border and has ties to the Islamic State group. The AP said the killings took place in the area of Irumu in Ituri province.
Jean Tobie Okala, the spokesperson for the United Nations mission in Ituri, called the attack a bloodbath in a statement quoted by the AP. Civil society figures told the wire that all the victims, including women, were killed with machetes.
The AP report said the toll had risen from an earlier count of 31 to 66 based on civil-society information. It also said the number of people taken hostage was not known.
The killings came as eastern Congo was already under intense strain from a separate conflict involving M23, and the AP noted that the new violence came while the region may be nearing an end to that other war. The report said the latest attack may have been in response to an escalating bombing campaign by joint Congolese and Ugandan forces that started on Sunday.
The ADF has a long record of attacking civilians, and rights groups and the United Nations have accused it of killing hundreds and abducting many more. The AP said the group originated in Uganda in the late 1990s and became affiliated with the Islamic State in 2019.
The latest massacre reinforces how civilian communities in eastern Congo remain exposed to armed groups even when attention is focused on larger regional wars. The AP report made clear that the Irumu killings were part of a recurring pattern of brutal attacks rather than an isolated incident.
The ADF attack in Irumu is significant not only because of the number killed but because it adds to a long record of rural massacres in eastern Congo. The AP report makes clear that these are civilians being targeted with extreme brutality, and that the threat persists even when other conflicts draw more international attention.
The uncertainty over hostages is also important. If people were taken alive, the attack could still produce more loss beyond the 66 confirmed deaths. That means the toll is both already severe and potentially incomplete, which is often the case in attacks carried out by armed groups that move quickly through remote areas.
Because the attack happened in eastern Congo, far from the national capital, it also reflects the way armed groups can still dominate remote territory even when the country's other wars get more attention. The AP report makes the civilian toll central and leaves no doubt that the ADF remains capable of catastrophic violence. The uncertainty over hostage-taking adds another layer of fear for local communities.
