In a brutal assault that has left the global Christian community reeling, Islamic State (ISIS)-affiliated militants stormed a Catholic clinic in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), killing around 20 people, including vulnerable nursing mothers. The attack on November 14, 2025, in the village of Byambwe, North Kivu province, targeted a vital maternity ward, slashing throats and setting the facility ablaze. As nuns treat survivors outdoors amid the rubble, this tragedy underscores the relentless persecution of Christians in Africa’s conflict zones and the desperate need for international intervention.
The Night of Terror: Militants Storm the Clinic
Eyewitnesses describe a scene of unimaginable horror. Around 10:00 PM, heavily armed fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), ISIS’s Central Africa Province affiliate, burst into the Catholic-run medical center. They raided patient rooms and the maternity ward, methodically executing those inside.
Among the victims were nursing mothers found on their beds with throats slit, some still clutching their infants. “They killed mothers as they were breastfeeding their babies,” Italian missionary Father Giovanni Piumatti recounted. “It’s beyond imagination.” Fifteen died in the clinic itself, with five more slaughtered in nearby homes.
The attackers looted medical supplies, likely their primary goal, before torching the entire facility and 27 surrounding houses. Flames engulfed the maternity unit, raising fears that additional women and newborns perished in the blaze. The militants, better equipped than local forces, melted into the dense forest, evading capture.
A Lifeline Destroyed: The Clinic’s Vital Role
Operated by the Sisters of the Presentation, this clinic was the only healthcare access for isolated communities in North Kivu. It provided essential maternal care, general medicine, and basic surgery to thousands cut off by ongoing violence. Now reduced to ashes, it leaves residents without care as the region grapples with war, disease, and displacement.
The surviving nuns, unharmed but traumatized, have shifted to outdoor triage. They await a security assessment before rebuilding, but with ADF attacks nearly weekly, hope feels fragile. Father Piumatti warned: “Panic spread everywhere. Many go unreported.”
The Broader Crisis: ISIS’s Grip on Eastern Congo
The ADF, originally a Ugandan rebel group, pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2019 and now operates as its deadliest African arm. In 2025 alone, ISCAP has claimed responsibility for over 600 Christian deaths in the DRC, including a July church massacre in Komanda that killed 49 worshippers. Recent beheadings in Ituri province pushed the toll even higher.
This surge coincides with intensified fighting between DRC forces and M23 rebels, diverting attention from jihadist threats. The UN’s MONUSCO mission reports nearly 90% of ISIS’s global operations now occur in Africa, fueling a cycle of massacres, rapes, and displacement.
For Congolese Christians, women, children, and the elderly, these are not random acts but targeted genocide. Missionaries like Father Piumatti plead: “Peaceful Christians are suffering the heaviest losses.”
Echoes in Nigeria: A Pattern of Persecution
This Congo clinic attack mirrors rising violence against Christians in Nigeria, where Islamists killed over 20 in a single day earlier this year. Reports show a 500% surge in anti-Christian incidents across India and Africa, with underreporting shielding perpetrators.
As an African nursing media agency, we stand with frontline workers like the Sisters of the Presentation, who risk everything to heal. Their resilience amid such barbarity demands global action: stronger UN sanctions, EU peacekeeping boosts, and amplified voices for the voiceless.
Fellow Nurses Africa is the independent voice of African nursing. We educate, inform and support nurses across Africa.
