A rebel group affiliated with the Islamic State group in Congo launched a series of attacks on remote communities near the Uganda border over the past two days, killing at least 22 people and abducting at least 10 others, civil society groups said on Wednesday, November 11. The attacks were carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) across eight locations in the Mambasa territory in the country's eastern Ituri province, according to two civil society and human rights monitoring groups.
Source: Associated Press, Nov 11, 2026
Eight communities named; toll still provisional
The APDEF Mambasa monitoring team named the eight locations as Kangwayi, Misele, Mingazi, Mambaka, Mayi ya Primus, Dongoma, Sukisa and Mabangibangi. Its provisional account also listed one injured civilian, two burned motorcycles and five homes set on fire. APDEF coordinator Rams Malikidogo said other people remained missing and several locations were inaccessible, limiting the group's ability to establish the full extent of the attacks, which took place near the Uganda border in an area where access is difficult. APDEF urged security forces to adapt their operations to protect communities and warned that fighters remained in the area, Radio Elimu reported.
Source: APDEF monitoring account via Wrivid, Nov 12, 2026
The territorial administration said APDEF had not shared its figures with it or with customary chiefs before publication. After meeting with local chiefs, the administration said incidents had been noted in some of the named communities, but it withheld confirmation of the overall toll. Separately, ITURI.CD reported that five bodies, mostly of farmers, were found near the Mingazi forest on November 10, with the local civil-society chair confirming the discovery; that report does not establish whether those deaths are included in APDEF's later count of 22.
Source: Territorial administration and ITURI.CD via Wrivid, Nov 12, 2026
Army moves toward the threatened areas
Bunia Actualité reported that the deputy territorial administrator said the commander of the Congolese army's (FARDC) 31st brigade had moved toward the threatened areas after reports of suspicious movements, and the Associated Press separately quoted a deputy Mambasa administrator saying the military was working to stem the group. A local official said joint Congolese-Ugandan operations near Pangoy and TP in western Mambasa may have pushed ADF fighters east, toward the communities that were attacked.
Source: Bunia Actualité and Associated Press via Wrivid, Nov 12, 2026
The Mambasa attacks came five days after ADF fighters raided Cantine-Aloya in neighbouring North Kivu, killing at least 33 people and forcing Ebola patients to flee a health post. That earlier story is linked here. Read the Cantine ADF attack story
A pattern the UN warned about in September
At a September 29 Security Council meeting, MONUSCO chief James Swan said ADF activity had intensified in Mambasa, with attacks and abductions continuing. He told the Council that MONUSCO and Congolese forces had conducted 3,115 joint patrols since his prior briefing and that the UN mission established a base in Mambasa in June. The ADF has roots in Uganda and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019, the Associated Press reported; a UN briefing said the group had stepped up operations along the Ituri–North Kivu border as well as in Mambasa, including attacks on mining sites.
Source: UN Security Council briefing via Wrivid, Nov 12, 2026
Attacks also threaten the Ebola response
The Associated Press said the attacks threaten Ebola containment in Ituri, one of the provinces at the centre of the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak that this week passed 11,042 confirmed cases and 5,387 deaths — the deadliest outbreak in Congo's history and the second-largest on record. A health-ministry report dated November 3, before these attacks, recorded five new cases, 118 cumulative cases and 65 deaths in the Mambasa health zone, and said insecurity had left a point of control in Avakubi nonfunctional.
Source: Associated Press, Nov 11, 2026
The outbreak's 11,000-case milestone, and Kenya's discharge of its last Ebola patient the same week, were covered on Tuesday. That story is linked here. Read the Ebola 11,042 cases story
What is solid
- Two civil society and human rights monitoring groups reported ADF attacks across eight Mambasa locations over two days, with at least 22 killed and at least 10 abducted (Associated Press)
- The APDEF team named the eight communities and its coordinator Rams Malikidogo said people remain missing and several locations are inaccessible, so the count is provisional
- A deputy territorial administrator said the FARDC 31st brigade commander moved toward the threatened areas
What is only claimed
- The toll itself: the territorial administration said incidents were noted in some named communities but withheld confirmation of the overall figure of 22, noting APDEF had not shared its figures with officials or customary chiefs before publishing
- Whether the five bodies found near the Mingazi forest on November 10 are inside APDEF's count of 22 — local reporting does not establish this
What happens next
The immediate questions are whether the army's move into the threatened areas stops further attacks — APDEF warned the fighters remain in the area — and whether officials confirm or revise the provisional toll once the inaccessible locations are reached and the missing are accounted for. The attacks also land on top of an Ebola response already strained by insecurity in Ituri: if health teams cannot safely reach Mambasa's communities, contact tracing and care in one of the outbreak's active zones will fall further behind, in a province where the disease has already killed thousands.