The ADF was formed by Jamil Mukulu, an ultra conservative Ugandan Muslim belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat group. Mukulu was born as David Steven and was baptised as a Catholic, later converting to Islam, adopting a Muslim name and becoming radicalised. He reportedly spent the early 1990s in Khartoum, Sudan, coming into personal contact with Osama bin Laden.[5]
ADF merged with the remnants of another rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU), during the years following the fall of Idi Amin. ADF-NALU's initial goal was to overthrow Ugandan president's Yoweri Museveni government, replacing it with an Islamic fundamentalist state. The group went on to recruit former officers of the Ugandan army, as well as volunteers from Tanzania and Somalia. Funded by the illegal mining and logging industries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ADF created 15 well organised camps in the Rwenzori Mountains, located in the DRC-Uganda border areas. The insurgence remained unaffected by government amnesty and talk efforts, as members married local women.[6]
Formed in 1989, ADF carried out its first attacks in 1995. The conflict gradually intensified, culminating in the 1998 Kichwamba Technical College attack, which left 80 people dead, with 80 more being abducted. By 2002, continuous pressure from the Ugandan Army forced ADF to relocate most of its activities into the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. The insurgency continued on a smaller scale until 2013, which marked a resurgence of ADF activity, with the group launching a recruitment campaign along with numerous attacks.[5][7][8]
In 2024, the ADF committed the highest number of civilian killings in the DRC.[9] The Ntoyo attack comes just over a month after the attack on a church in Komanda.[1]
Ntoyo was home to approximately 2,500 people at the time of the attack.[3]
Attack
Many civilians were gathered in attendance on a funeral in the town of Ntoyo.
An estimated 10 ADF attackers stormed the funeral wake on the night of 8 September around 9:00 a.m. CAT (UTC+2), catching attendees off guard.[2][4] Attendees noted that militants wearing what seemed like military uniforms.[3] They rounded up civilians and summarily executed them with machetes and light arms.[2]
After the primary attack, rebels burned down approximately 30 homes and vehicles, burning individuals alive inside.[3][4]
Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) spokesperson Lieutenant Marc Elongo stated that the ADF militant perpetrators had fled the scene before the FARDC could intervene.[4]
A separate attack by the ADF occurred in an adjacent town, killing 18.[4]
The ADF claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed that they had killed nearly 100 Christians.[4]
Reaction and response
Many residents were seen leaving Ntoyo as early as the morning of 9 September.[4] Ntoyo was mostly deserted by 10 September. Residents blamed government inaction.[3] 25 of those killed in the attack were buried on Wednesday.[12]
Religious institutions
Military, governments, and intergovernmental organizations
France's Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on 11 September 2025, sent condolences, and called for peace in the Great Lakes region.[13]
Humanitarian Coordinator in the DRC for the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Bruno Lemarquis, stated in a press release on 10 January that he was "deeply shocked by the brutality of these attacks against civilians," reminded that "civilians are not targets," and urged that protections of civilians under international humanitarian law (IHL) was an "absolute [obligation]."[14]
The African Union's (AU) Chairperson, H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, published a press release[a] expressing a "deep shock" upon learning of the attack. He "strongly condemn[ed] this heinous [terrorist] attack, as well as the recurrent violence that continues to target civilians in eastern DRC." Youssouf mentioned that the attack violated IHL and called for the attackers to be found and held accountable "in order to put an end to the prevailing climate of impunity that fuels the recurrence of these atrocities. The text concludes by reaffirming the AU's commitment to "restoring peace, security and stability in the Great Lakes region."[15]
Human Rights Groups
Notes
↑ The African Union's press release was headed as an "Information & Communication Directorate." It was, however, not assigned a formal press release number identifier. It was published from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where its headquarters are located.
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