Warning: graphic subject material
“We don’t know what to do or how to pray [other than]… may God’s will be done.” – A local evangelical elder.
Please pray for our Christian brothers and sister in DR Congo.
You may have seen on the news this week that 70 Christians were taken hostage from a village in the North Kivu Region of the DR Congo and, shortly therafter, executed (inside a local church building) by a militant terrorist group known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The ADF is a radical Islamist group with connections to the Islamic State (they are also known as Islamist State-Central Africa Province) that operates in Western Uganda and Eastern DR Congo. The were formed in the mid-90s, but became increasingly radicalised around 2019 and it’s reported that they are responsible for the deaths of almost 6,000 Christians since that time.
This attack, and the ADF group, are separate from the civil conflict that is raging between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army around Goma (the village sits around 250km north of Goma city).
However, it appears that the ADF have been emboldened by the insecurity in the region as they have recently increased the frequency and scale of their attacks on Christian communities.
In 2024 they took the lives of 355 Christians, and now, in only the three months since Christmas, they’ve already killed around 250.
Christians are the most persecuted religious group globally. Every day, an average of 13 followers of Jesus are put to death for their faith. Christians face persecution in around three-quarters of the world’s nations, including many of those where our partners work, and 80% of all religious discrimination is directed against them, though they make up just 33% of the world’s population.*
Heartbreakingly, these numbers almost pale in comparrison to the 7,000 killed by the civil conflict (in addition to the amount of trauma and devastation) since January.
Please continue joining us in prayer for all the people of Goma and the surrounding North Kivu region (you can find the latest prayer points in our Goma update here) and pray also now for the additional threat to our ministry partners and Christian brothers and sisters in the region.
In the face of all this devastation we recently launched an emergency appeal to raise funds to support our ministry partners and the people of Goma through this crisis. Please prayerfully consider it and, if you’re able, please give generously to the people of Goma at this time of incredible and urgent need.
*You can find a more detailed report of the attack and situation facing Christians in the DR Congo in this article Massacre in the DRC: 70 Christians Beheaded in Brutal Attack – The Daily Declaration (warning: graphic material)