Democratic Republic of the CongoIslamists Persecute Christians Along Eastern Border

On Sunday morning, Jan. 15, 2023, Christians took their seats as usual in the hand-hewn pews of the church in Kasindi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Though they couldn’t have expected it, their lives were about to change in an instant.

“When the bomb went off, it was very hot,” Brigitte said. “People [were] injured and dead around us.”

Kasindi is located in the northeastern DRC, an area of the majority-Christian nation where Islamists severely persecute Christians. One of the primary persecutors is the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which after pledging allegiance to the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) in 2018 began targeting Christians in recurring attacks. The ADF is active in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces of northeastern DRC, and the group has openly stated its intent to eradicate Christians from the area while establishing Islamic law throughout the region.

On the day of the bombing, Brigitte was sitting in an outdoor area under the shade of a tarp. Her 4-year-old son, James, was on her back, and her 8-year-old son, Patrick, had just sat down next to her after singing in the church choir.

Then the bomb exploded, causing chaos among the group of believers. “We realized that some enemy of ours had come,” said Moises, an assistant pastor at the church.

The bomb killed 15 people, including Brigitte’s son James. Brigitte was hospitalized for months with severe shrapnel wounds to her legs, and her son Patrick was also among the more than 70 people injured in the blast.

The Kasindi church was targeted by the ADF because of its bold witness in the community. The church’s senior pastor had received a threatening phone call from the group a year earlier. “We heard that you were praying against those who were doing the killings and specifically the ADF,” they told him. “We are warning you that you need to leave, or you will be killed.”

Christians Specifically Targeted

The DRC is the largest country, geographically, in sub-Saharan Africa. And while 90% of Congolese identify as Christians, Islam is a growing influence. “In Africa, most persecution occurs along a southeastern trending line from Mauritania to the coastline of Kenya, ... [which] separates most of the Muslim-majority nations from Christian-majority nations,” a VOM worker said. But in recent years, persecution against Christians has increased in predominantly Christian countries, such as Uganda, Mozambique and the DRC. And Islamist opposition has been especially fierce in areas where there has been a strong Christian witness.

In addition to the ADF’s increased anti-Christian activity in the northeast, more than 100 other armed groups also operate in the DRC. A particular area of concern is the Ubwari Peninsula, where Christians have experienced ongoing opposition from Muslims. During the past two decades, Muslims in this area have attempted to expel Christians from the peninsula by burning their churches and killing local church leaders. Some of these attacks have extended beyond the peninsula into the mainland.

Most Congolese are subsistence farmers, growing crops on small plots of land called shambas, or gardens. Their location in or near dense areas of jungle gives rebel groups like the ADF a place to hide and launch surprise attacks.

“It is war,” said Nuela, a 27-year-old mother of three. “People [use] the knives and machetes, cutting, killing. It is so terrible.” Nuela fled from the ADF in early 2023 after the Islamists murdered 20 members of her extended family, including her brother and sisters.

Murder is not the only atrocity inflicted on Christians in the northeastern DRC. Front-line workers have reported that an estimated 40% of women and 24% of men in the region have suffered sexual violence. Ungwa, a believer who lived in the Ruzizi Valley, fled into the jungle with her four children after Muslims attacked and killed her husband. While she was hiding, the attackers found her and sexually assaulted her. She continues to suffer from the trauma of the attack, but she remains firm in her faith.

We are warning you that you need to leave, or you will be killed.

“Even today, I am very much sick,” Ungwa said. “Sometimes, when I think of how my husband was killed and having to flee, I feel the sickness closing in on me. Without God, I would not be here today. The only thing that has helped me is my faith in God.”

Pushing Back Darkness

Christians in the DRC have continued to reach out to their neighbors amid the suffering. Many churches have outreach ministries in Muslim neighborhoods, and church leaders are teaching their congregations to withstand the advance of radical Islam.

“If the church is not strengthened, Islam will be everywhere,” explained a pastor who works to train and send Congolese missionaries throughout the country.

The only thing that has helped me is my faith in God.

Their efforts are not without risk, however. Fanueli Kambale, a Christian schoolteacher, was passionate about sharing his faith. While growing crops on a shamba near the forest, Fanueli used his time to teach children about the Christian faith.

In 2020, ADF militants twice warned Fanueli to stop teaching children about Christ. The third time they caught him discipling youth, they murdered him in front of his wife, Georgine, and their 3-year-old son, Andre. They took Georgine hostage but released her shortly afterward.

When Georgine returned to work at her shamba, ADF rebels confronted her and, according to eyewitnesses, said, “We told you not to come back. We already killed your husband; now we are killing you also.” And they did.

Georgine’s younger sister, Juliet, began caring for Georgine’s three children, and six months later Juliet’s father was also murdered by ADF fighters. Juliet, a trained seamstress, then became the sole provider for her mother and Georgine’s three young children. VOM has since helped her expand her sewing business into a training school.

VOM is working through a network of local churches to provide emergency aid — such as food, shelter, clothing and Bibles — to thousands of internally displaced Christians, focusing specifically in the area where the ADF is most active. The aid provides opportunities for local churches to minister with God’s love in an area devastated by violence.

“When the community learned that the church was going to help, they said, ‘What can the church provide?’” a VOM worker recalled. “They have only ever seen the NGOs doing any kind of humanitarian help for the suffering and never could have imagined the church itself helping. People were quite shocked to see churches working together to help those in need.”

The church’s witness is having an effect. Through aid provided by local churches and the global body of Christ, Nuela, who lives in a camp for internally displaced people, is able to provide for her family. “If it was not for God, I would have been killed,” she said. “Thank God also for your support, because if you were not supporting us, we and our kids would already be killed back in the forest.”

VOM is equipping pastors to provide spiritual care to those who have suffered trauma and may struggle with their faith as a result of the attacks. These pastors help Christians like Brigitte, who despite ongoing pain and an inability to work, recently rejoined worship services at the reopened Kasindi church. She said without the practical support she is receiving from the body of Christ, it would be hard for her to survive. And the spiritual support bolsters her faith. “The Bible teaching brings me comfort,” she said.