In brief
Overnight flooding of bullets and fire in Cantine, Beni territory, North Kivu Province, claimed at least 30 lives – civilians, police officers, and civil society workers – and left several hostages in the hands of the rival militants. Congolese and Ugandan troops are searching for survivors while a joint military campaign has been underway since November 2021 to bring the Islamist‑linked group to justice.
On the night that stretched from Thursday into Friday, 2026, Cantine – a locality in Beni territory of North Kivu Province, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo – was hit by a sudden and deadly raid attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Security sources said that at least 30 people were killed, including civilians, security personnel and civil society members, and that several houses were set on fire during the assault.
The strike, reported by local authorities in Beni, saw armed men killing residents and demolishing homes overnight. Reinforcements were called to the area amid the chaos, and military operations were launched to pursue the attackers and locate any missing victims. In addition, some people were reportedly taken hostage by the rebels as they withdrew from the locality.
Attack and Immediate Response
According to the Congolese security briefings, the assault took place in Cantine on the boundary of Beni territory. The violence felled at least 30 individuals, a toll that includes members of the community, members of the local security apparatus and civil society actors. The strike also left a number of houses ablaze, compounding the humanitarian impact on the town.
The Congolese government maintained that troops were deployed immediately to respond to the attack, engaging in search operations to trace suspects, locate victims and free any hostages taken by the militants.
ADF’s Background and Regional Tensions
The ADF, an insurgent group that operates in eastern DRC and is linked to the Islamic State, has been the subject of a sustained multi‑nation counter‑insurgency effort involving Congolese and Ugandan forces since November 2021. The United Nations and local governments have treated the ADF as an armed rebel faction intent on destabilising the region, with the most recent season of violence drawing global attention to the escalating security crisis in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
In recent months, the militant group has intensified attacks against civilians in several locations across North Kivu and Ituri, prompting local authorities in the region to boil down to tighter security measures. The actions taken by the armies of Congo and Uganda aim to deny the ADF territorial foothold and neutralise its operational capacity.
At the time of the Cantine incident, police units and the Congolese armed forces reportedly operated a joint operation, while backing and intelligence from Ugandan troops were also involved. The joint forces had been conducting a series of coordinated operations aimed at breaching ADF hideout sites in the area.
Given the rising threat posed by the group, the mobilisation of a combined Congolese‑Ugandan task force has become a defining feature of security policy in the eastern provinces. The government has repeatedly emphasised its objective to dismantle the ADF’s infrastructure and prevent further attacks on civilian populations.
The latest tally on casualties, which rises to at least 30, represents a significant increase from previous counts in the same locality, where, according to earlier reports, at least 10 civilians had already been lost in an ADF attack earlier that day. The dual reports underscore the difficulty faced by state forces in accurately judging the scale and severity of the insurgent raids, which often occur in densely populated camps and villages.
As Congo and Uganda continue to conduct search operations to locate victims and hostages, officials reiterated that they were seeking “prompt identification” of the extremist group’s members and using intelligence and surveillance to pin down the ADF's hideouts. The combined operation’s mission remains clear: to halt the threat posed by an Islamic State‑linked insurgent faction.
At present, no definitive claim has been made by the ADF regarding responsibility for the attack. However, security officials have bounded the assault to their known methods and previous attacks in the region. The sustainability of life in Cantine and surrounding areas remains uncertain pending the outcome of the continuing military campaign. Additional information will emerge as investigations progress.
