Holy Thursday MASSACRE—43 Christians Killed While Sleeping…

Islamic State-affiliated militants slaughtered 43 Christians in their sleep on one of Christianity’s holiest days, wielding machetes and torches in a nighttime massacre that underscores a brutal campaign to exterminate Africa’s faithful while the world looks away.

Holy Week Becomes Week of Horror

Allied Democratic Forces militants descended on Bafwakoa village in Mambasa Territory during the night of April 2, 2026, transforming Maundy Thursday into a bloodbath. The Islamic State-affiliated terrorists attacked sleeping Christians with a coordinated assault involving gunfire, machete beheadings, and arson. Anonymous civil society sources described unbearable images of carnage, with some bodies still unrecovered days later. The death toll of 43 may rise as recovery efforts continue. Women and children were abducted during the raid, while homes were systematically torched, leaving survivors with nothing but ashes and trauma.

Pattern of Religious Extermination

The Bafwakoa massacre fits a disturbing pattern of ADF attacks specifically targeting Christians during worship and holy observances. Just weeks earlier, ADF jihadists killed 49 Christians at a church in Komanda village, decapitating nine children in the process. In November 2025, the same terror group attacked a hospital in Byambwe, North Kivu, killing 20 people including maternity ward patients. Eyewitnesses to similar attacks describe jihadists storming churches mid-service, beheading worshippers with machetes while families watch in horror. Father Giovanni Piumatti, a missionary with over 50 years in the DRC, confirmed the typical ADF pattern: adult militants strike first, then force young recruits to finish victims with machetes.

Government Response Falls Short

National Assembly President Aimé Boji condemned the attack during an April 8 parliamentary session, urging the government to stop the killings of civilians. Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya promised intensified military operations, security reinforcement, and aid to affected communities. The Congolese Armed Forces announced targeted operations to neutralize ADF militants and called for civilian cooperation. However, these assurances ring hollow to Christians who have endured years of massacres with little effective protection. The ADF exploits weak state control in eastern DRC, often outgunning local military forces. Critics note the government’s defensive posture suggests greater concern with managing political fallout than addressing the fundamental security failures enabling these atrocities.

Christians Forced to Live as Refugees

More than 16 million Christians across Sub-Saharan Africa have been displaced by Islamic extremist violence, with eastern DRC representing a particularly dire crisis zone. Families in Ituri and North Kivu provinces now sleep in jungles each night, abandoning their homes after dark to avoid ADF raids. The economic and social devastation extends beyond death tolls—hospitals are looted and burned, infrastructure destroyed, and entire communities traumatized by witnessing neighbors beheaded or burned alive. International Christian Concern and Open Doors have documented this systematic campaign of religious persecution, yet global attention remains focused elsewhere. The ADF’s stated goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in a region that is 80-95% Christian represents an existential threat to ancient faith communities.

This massacre occurred during Holy Week 2026, which also saw Palm Sunday attacks killing over 12 Nigerian Christians and assaults on Syrian Christians. The coordinated timing suggests a deliberate strategy to terrorize the faithful during their most sacred observances. The world’s failure to respond with meaningful action to this genocide-in-progress raises fundamental questions about international priorities and the value placed on African Christian lives. While government officials make promises and religious organizations document atrocities, families continue sleeping in forests, wondering if they will survive until dawn.