Originally published by Open Doors
After investigating disputed reports of a horrific attack against believers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Open Doors has found evidence of abduction and killings and calls on the international community to pursue the truth.
The Open Doors investigation was in response to questions about the veracity of multiple reports on February 15, of a horrific massacre in the eastern DRC. Allegedly, 70 Christians had been abducted from their village of Mayba and taken to the nearby town of Kasanga, where they were beheaded. Immediately following the initial reports, Open Doors field teams spoke on the phone with trusted partners in the area, including a seasoned journalist and a church elder, who both confirmed the incident.
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But reports began to surface that the massacre had not taken place. And so, Open Doors sent a representative to the area to try to verify what had happened – and learn how we can pray and support the Christian community in this part of the DRC.
When our representative reached the area, several witnesses – who spoke to him on condition of anonymity – confirmed the abduction. However, due to ongoing insecurity, our representative was unable to access Kasanga and find conclusive information on the alleged subsequent massacre.
Shortly after that, Open Doors again sent an investigative team to the area to try and locate eyewitnesses and/or families of the deceased. This new team was still unable to access Kasanga due to insecurity. Although people from Mayba had been scattered to different areas (the entire area is in an extremely volatile region of the DRC) and appeared to be moving around, this team was at least able to speak with some residents from Mayba who could provide firsthand information about the kidnapping. The investigative team was able to learn some of what happened – and their findings are a stark reminder of the reality facing followers of Jesus in this part of the DRC. This is why Open Doors is calling for a thorough, independent investigation into this attack, along with protective measures for all civilians in eastern DRC.
The investigative team found convincing evidence that the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – Islamic militants with ties to the Islamic State group – abducted a large group of people from the Mayba region and took them to the church in Kasanga.
A 43-year-old Christian from Mayba told our team: “During the evening, we had learned that the [ADF] had just arrived.” Note: Throughout this story, we are not identifying local believers by name for their own safety. The Christian said a person who looked drunk or drugged arrived in the village with their hands tied. The person asked to be untied and warned villagers of an impending attack. “It’s directly then that the [area] became turbulent,” the believer recounts. “We started the trip [to flee] directly that same night. We didn’t bring our belongings. We came empty-handed.” Later, people told this local believer that the ADF had taken a group of Christians.
Taken to Kasanga, but then what?
It’s also clear to Open Doors’ investigative team that the attackers then lingered at the church in Kasanga with the captives for some time. But what exactly happened next is unclear. The overwhelming number of people in the area we spoke to believed that a mass killing had occurred in Mayba. Those the team spoke to in this second round of investigation didn’t know the exact number of people killed or exactly what had happened, but they stated that an unknown number of bodies had been buried and that mourning had taken place.
One person told us that they heard the news of the massacre on the radio but didn’t believe it until he spoke to a “rescuer” (likely a civil society member who helps to claim bodies) who discovered the bodies in the church. “The information is from a Mayba rescuer,” said one interviewee, a church elder who also confirmed that one group was taken from Karmeli Hill – part of the Mayba region – followed by a second, larger group.
“They told us the people are finished. They were killed in a church,” the elder said. Another elder from Matuna – a town about 40 kilometres from Mayba – also provided insight: “This information that says people were killed is true and … it’s confirmed,” he says. “There was a radio station that communicated about this, it’s true. People were killed in a church. I had found a person who had seen the corpses, and two families had organised a mourning [for those] who died … [those] found in the church, already killed.”
Another local pastor echoed these reports. “We heard there was a big killing done there,” he said. “This is what led people to leave their [homes]. Yes, that is to say, the killings of the ADF. Many of our Christians were killed. And the others were taken. So, we don’t know if they were killed in the places where they were taken. So far, we have no news. But we know that some of their bodies were found.”
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