ROME OSV News – Missionaries in Congo denounced a “shameful silence” of the international community as 20 people were killed in a terrorist attack Nov. 14 at the North Kivu village of Byambwe, in Congo, according to Vatican News.
Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for the Christian community in North Kivu, where members of the Allied Democratic Forces, a group loyal to Islamic State, attacked a clinic run by the Presentation Sisters, killing 15 people before stealing medications and burning the clinic down.
They went to nearby homes as well, killing another five people, Vatican News reported.
“Let us pray that all violence may cease and that believers may work together for the common good,” the Pope said during the Angelus prayer on Nov. 16.
After the massacre of patients, the ADF set the hospital ablaze, killing several women in the maternity ward.
The attack was confirmed to Vatican News by Father Giovanni Piumatti, an Italian priest who has served for over 50 years as a Fidei Donum missionary in the Diocese of Butembo-Beni.
Speaking to Vatican News from Italy, he described the massacre as a “typical ADF attack,”
in which apart from killing civilians, the terrorists set ablaze their homes.
“Before destroying everything, they looted all the medical supplies – I believe that was their main objective,” he told Vatican news.
“Panic spread everywhere. The army pursued them, but despite its efforts, the terrorists escaped. They seem to be better armed and equipped than the regular forces,” he said.
The missionary underlines a sophisticated brutality of ADF forces.
“What is most tragic – beyond the sheer number of innocent victims – is the way they kill,” Father Piumatti said. “They slit civilians’ throats, decapitate them – it’s horrific. Here they killed mothers as they were breastfeeding their babies. These massacres are beyond imagination, and they happen almost every week. Many go unreported,” he told Vatican News.
The same group is believed to kill at least 43 people, including children, in a brutal July 27 overnight attack on a Catholic Church in Komanda in eastern Congo.
Vatican News said that the Little Sisters of the Presentation who run the hospital in north Kivu, provide vital medical care in a remote area that lacks functioning hospitals. They mainly assist women in childbirth, but the facility also includes clinics and surgical units.
“The ADF have been active in this region for at least three years,” Father Piumatti continued.
“Many of the fighters come from Uganda. They attack indiscriminately – on the roads, in villages, in the fields while people work. In addition to killing, they kidnap children and young people for training. They often act under the influence of drugs, and they drug the captives they abduct.”
“When preparing an attack, the adults strike first, then force the young recruits to continue the killing with machetes. They are utterly brutal,” he told the Vatican media outlet.
The sisters, now working on the streets, continue to assist survivors however they can.
As of Nov. 16, there appeared to be no casualties among the sisters, though many newborns are believed to have been kidnapped. “It is horrifying and heartbreaking to witness and hear such things,” Father Piumatti said.
The missionary priest condemned what he called the “shameful silence” of the international community, denouncing the West’s complicity in supporting certain forms of violence and terrorism for economic gain.
“Kivu is rich in mineral deposits – a land full of precious resources that has always been contested,” said Father Piumatti. “That is why these Islamist groups receive backing. The ADF are the most ferocious, but they are not the only ones supplied with weapons and money to keep trade flowing. These conflicts serve commercial interests – and the world’s silence is profoundly troubling.”
Cecilia Seppia is a writer for Vatican News. CNS Rome contributed to this report.