Armed men blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) raided the village of Cantine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo late on Thursday, killing at least 33 civilians and setting fire to homes and a health post — forcing patients with confirmed and suspected Ebola infections to flee into the surrounding area.
The attack struck Cantine-Aloyath, about 50 kilometres west of the city of Beni in North Kivu province, at around 11 p.m. local time on Thursday, officials said. It is the latest deadly assault in a region already at the centre of the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo's history.
What happened in Cantine
According to Beni territorial administrator Colonel Charles Omeonga, fighters from the ADF set fire to several houses and killed civilians during the overnight raid. Local civil society leaders counted 33 bodies after the attack, most of them bearing gunshot wounds, while others had been burned or hacked with machetes, Tchetche Aliamini, a local civil society leader, told Reuters.
Justin Paluku, head of another local civil society group, gave the same count to the Associated Press, saying more than 50 houses had been set on fire, along with "various other forms of material destruction".
The official death toll has not yet been established. Colonel Omeonga told Reuters that heavy rain had hampered army operations and investigations in the area, so the figure of 33 remains the count made by civil society groups, reported independently through both Reuters and the Associated Press, rather than a final official toll.
Cantine sits in North Kivu, which currently accounts for almost half of all new Ebola infections in the DRC's Bundibugyo outbreak — second only to Ituri province, the epicentre. The province was also the epicentre of three previous Ebola outbreaks, including the 2018–2020 outbreak, which was the country's largest and deadliest until this year.
Ebola patients forced to flee
The attackers also set fire to a health post during the assault, and the violence spread to the doorstep of the local hospital. Christian Kakule, medical director of the Kelekele Hospital Centre in Cantine, said 180 patients fled the hospital, including suspected Ebola cases and one confirmed case. The head doctor told Reuters that among those who fled were one confirmed Ebola patient and five suspected cases, including three high-risk contacts.
"High-risk contacts and other individuals under monitoring have all fled. Our concern is that when probable cases end up out in the open like this, they can become a source of transmission and trigger an outbreak of the disease."
Kakule said there was gunfire and homes were set ablaze as close as 50 metres from the hospital. The flight of patients under monitoring for Ebola is a serious setback for the outbreak response: contact tracing depends on keeping suspected cases under observation, and every person who disappears into the surrounding villages is a potential new chain of transmission.
What is not yet known: whether any of the patients who fled have been located, and whether any new infections will be traced back to the raid. No health authority has yet reported a confirmed transmission linked to the attack.
Who are the ADF?
The ADF has its roots in Uganda and pledged allegiance to ISIL (ISIS) in 2019. It is recognised by Islamic State as an affiliate and has long operated in the border region between Uganda and eastern DRC, routinely attacking civilians.
The group is blamed by the Beni territorial administrator and by local civil society leaders for the Cantine raid, but the attribution rests on their accounts — no group has claimed the attack, and no independent evidence has been published linking the ADF to this specific assault.
The ADF's record in the region is extensive. In July 2025, the group killed 66 people in eastern DRC in an attack the United Nations called a "bloodbath". About 100 other armed groups operate in the DRC, most prominently the Rwanda-backed M23, which has seized key cities in the east of the country while Ebola cases increase.
"This represents a major security failure. Given the number of loyalist and security forces deployed in this area, it is incomprehensible how the enemy managed to bypass their defences to kill civilians and inflict such significant material and human casualties."
That was Justin Paluku, speaking to the Associated Press after the raid — a pointed criticism of the security forces deployed around Beni, a city that has lived under the threat of ADF attacks for years.
The outbreak in numbers
The raid struck at the heart of the DRC's Ebola response. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has recorded more than 10,000 cases and 5,300 Ebola deaths across the DRC in the current outbreak.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Ebola cases recorded in the DRC | More than 10,000 | Africa CDC |
| Ebola deaths recorded in the DRC | 5,300 | Africa CDC |
| Share of new infections in North Kivu | Almost half | Reuters / Al Jazeera |
| Civilians killed in the Cantine raid | At least 33 (civil society count; official toll not yet established) | Reuters / AP |
| Houses set on fire in Cantine | More than 50 | AP, via civil society |
| Patients who fled Kelekele Hospital Centre | 180, including one confirmed Ebola case | Hospital director |
Two new Ebola vaccines are set to join a trial in the DRC, the World Health Organization has said, as health authorities race to contain an outbreak that has outpaced every previous one in the country's history. The raid in Cantine shows how the security crisis and the health crisis feed each other: the same armed groups that make the east ungovernable are now disrupting the medical response itself.
Frequently asked questions
What do we know so far — and what don't we know?
At least 33 civilians were killed and more than 50 houses and a health post were burned; the count of 33 bodies was made by two civil society leaders independently. What is not yet known: the official death toll, which heavy rain has delayed, and whether the patients who fled the hospital have been found. The ADF has not claimed the attack; the attribution comes from local officials and civil society groups.
Why does the raid matter for the Ebola response?
North Kivu accounts for almost half of all new Ebola infections in the DRC, and the patients who fled included high-risk contacts under monitoring. When people under observation disappear into surrounding villages, contact tracers lose track of them — and each one can become a new source of transmission, as the hospital's medical director warned.
How bad is the Ebola outbreak?
The Africa CDC has recorded more than 10,000 cases and 5,300 deaths across the DRC. North Kivu is the second most affected province after Ituri, the epicentre, and the province was the epicentre of three previous outbreaks, including the 2018–2020 outbreak — the country's largest and deadliest until this year.
Key takeaways
- At least 33 civilians were killed in an overnight raid on Cantine, North Kivu — the count comes from two civil society leaders; the official toll is not yet established.
- The attackers set fire to a health post and more than 50 houses, and gunfire came within 50 metres of the local hospital.
- 180 patients fled the Kelekele Hospital Centre, including one confirmed Ebola case and five suspected cases — a serious blow to contact tracing in a province that accounts for almost half of new infections.
- Local officials and civil society blame the ISIL-affiliated ADF, which pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019 and killed 66 people in the region in July 2025.
- The DRC's Ebola outbreak has passed 10,000 cases and 5,300 deaths, according to the Africa CDC.
What to watch next
The immediate questions are whether the army can establish an official death toll once the rain clears, and whether health workers can locate the patients who fled the Kelekele Hospital Centre — above all the confirmed case and the three high-risk contacts. Any new infections traced to the raid would show up in case figures over the coming days.
Watch too for a response from the Congolese government and from the World Health Organization on how the Ebola response will operate in an area where armed groups can strike a hospital's doorstep, and for any claim of responsibility — or denial — from the ADF. The raid is a reminder that in eastern DRC, the war and the epidemic are the same crisis.
