The Tingwe massacre (French: Massacre de Tingwe, Swahili: Mauaji ya Tingwe) occurred on 31 December 2020, when Islamic State-affiliated (IS) Allied Democratic Forces (ADF-Baluku) rebels attacked the village of Tingwe, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 30 people. Several other civilians were kidnapped as well. Subsequent massacres were carried out in the nearby towns of Mwenda and Nzenga.
Background
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group based in Uganda and the DRC, established contact with the Islamic State to become the Islamic State's Central African Province (ISCAP) in 2017. Tingwe has been the target of previous massacres by the ADF as it sits within an area known as the triangle of death: a tri-point between Eringeti, Kamando, and Mbau. It takes an hour to drive the sixty kilometers to Tingwe from Beni, the closest large city. In 2016, ADF militants attacked Tingwe, which at that time had a population of 350 people, and beheaded and massacred many of the residents, killing seventeen people.
Massacre
Residents of Tingwe were in their fields preparing for New Year's Eve celebrations when ISCAP militants killed and kidnapped them. A representative of a civil society in Tingwe stated residents had alerted the Congolese army that ISCAP militants were in the area, passing from the east to the northeast near Eringeti. The representative to the governor in North Kivu stated that at least twenty-five people were killed and an unknown number were kidnapped, although survivors stated at least thirty people were killed. Many of the residents were beheaded, the modus operandi of the ISCAP.
Aftermath and reactions
On January 5, 2021, ISCAP militants attacked the village of Mwenda in Beni Territory, killing twenty-two civilians in a similar manner to Tingwe.
Former governor of Katanga Moïse Katumbi condemned the massacre. UN secretary general António Guterres condemned the massacre on January 7, 2021.