Armed men linked to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed at least 33 civilians and set more than 50 houses aflame in the village of Cantine in North Kivu on the night of June 7‑8, 2026, according to Al Jazeera and local officials. The raid also destroyed a health post, forcing 180 patients—many suspected of Ebola—to flee, heightening fears of a new outbreak.
Colonel Charles Omeonga, Beni’s territorial administrator, told Reuters that fighters “set fire to several houses and killed civilians” and that the attack came from the ADF. Justine Paluku, head of a local civil society group, echoed the blame in a report to the Associated Press. A second civil‑society leader, Tchetche Aliamini, confirmed to Reuters that the victims suffered gunshot wounds, with some burned or hacked with machetes.
Christian Kakule, medical director of Kelekele Hospital Centre in Cantine, said 180 patients—both confirmed and suspected Ebola cases—were forced to leave when the health post was set ablaze. He warned that such displaced contacts could spark a new transmission cluster. The incident comes as North Kivu accounts for almost half of all new Ebola infections in the DRC’s Bundibugyo outbreak, the Africa CDC reports.
The ADF, founded in Uganda and pledged allegiance to ISIL in 2019, has conducted previous raids across North Kivu, a region that has seen three major Ebola outbreaks since 2015. The violent assault adds fresh urgency to an already dire public‑health crisis that has left more than 10,000 cases and 5,300 deaths across the DRC, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
