According to The Independent - World, Kito, a 17-year-old boy, described killing at least 100 people while with an armed militia in Ituri province. The UN's annual report says at least 2,365 children were recruited across the DRC in the year to June 2025, but experts say this is likely a major underestimate. Most children are forcefully abducted, coerced, or drugged by militia groups, while others volunteer following pressure from the militia or from their friends.
More than 200 civilians held captive in eastern DRC by an armed group linked to Islamic State have been rescued in an army operation, according to the Ugandan military. Ugandan soldiers, working with their Congolese counterparts, targeted a camp controlled by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Children were among those freed, the youngest being a 14-year-old girl, according to a Ugandan statement. Those who were being held described harsh conditions in captivity, including lack of food, forced labour, and punishment for disobedience. Some rescued civilians seemed frail and were suffering from malaria, breathing difficulties, and exhaustion, according to authorities. Several ADF fighters were killed in the attack on the camp and a cache of weapons was recovered. The Ugandan army statement does not say if there were any casualties among the Ugandan or Congolese military.
I killed at least 100 people. It's really difficult to know how many, because we were shooting people en masse. But obviously it's a lot.
The Ituri region is home to dozens of warring ethnic militias and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the DRC branch of ISIS. ADF leader Musa Seka Baluku reportedly first pledged allegiance to IS in 2016, but it was not until April 2019 that IS first acknowledged its activity in the area. A 2024 study by BBC Monitoring found that the ADF was responsible for more than half of the civilian deaths in that conflict-hit region. According to BBC News - World, Rawya Rageh, a researcher for Amnesty International, described killings and abductions by the ADF happening with alarming frequency, with women and girls being used as sexual slaves.
The United Nations' acting top envoy for Congo warned the U.N. Security Council that the conflict in mineral-rich eastern Congo is escalating and expanding, with increasing use of heavy weapons and offensive drones posing serious risks to civilians. Despite the withdrawal of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and their allies from the town of Uvira under international pressure in January, clashes are escalating in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu between the M23 and Congolese army forces and their supporters. The situation in South Kivu remains tense and the renewed hostilities have expanded and shifted the front lines, including toward Burundi's border, increasing the risk of a regional conflagration. The situation in Ituri province also remains alarming, with numerous casualties from violence linked to rebel groups attacking mining sites. The conflict is expanding from North and South Kivu into Tshopo province, and the use of heavy weapons and drones in urban areas poses risks to civilians and civilian infrastructure.
They were looking at me. It will stay with me forever, the things I saw and the horrible things I had to do. I killed people. I saw these people die every day.
M23 is consolidating parallel administrative structures in areas under its control, which include Goma, further undermining state authority and complicating the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The M23, ADF, militias in the government-aligned Wazalendo coalition, and dozens of other armed groups in the DRC are all accused of recruiting children, both boys and girls. In Ituri province alone, 13,000 children remain in armed groups after 1,360 were released in 2025. In North Kivu province, at least 2,054 children were recruited according to the NGO Children for the Future and Development (EADEV).
Men, women and children told me how they ran for their lives as fighters armed with blades and guns descended on their villages.... Released hostages talked of agonising spells – sometimes months and years – spent in captivity, practically starved and forced to do various tasks in ADF camps.
Officials from Congo, Rwanda, and the United States met in Washington last week and agreed on coordinated steps to deescalate tensions in eastern Congo. Massad Boulos, a senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump on African and Arab affairs, said MONUSCO remains indispensable to the success of the peace process. Resolving the conflict in eastern Congo is a matter of highest priority for Trump, according to Boulos.
Key questions remain unanswered about military casualties during the rescue operation, the exact number of children recruited by armed groups, and the effectiveness of the joint Uganda-DRC offensive launched in 2021 to drive the ADF out of their Congolese strongholds, which has so far failed to put an end to the group's attacks.