Terrorist groups continued their rampage of death and destruction through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2025, increasingly targeting children as weapons for war and abuse.  

Militia groups numbering in the dozens have battled for decades to gain control of the DRC. Of the militias, perhaps the most well-established are the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic-affiliated group, and M23, terrorists motivated by political domination. They are notorious for kidnapping children from their villages and using them as child soldiers, laborers, and sexual slaves.  

After they are abducted, the children are brought to militia base camps. Some are trained to fight and kill for the groups, while others are forced to endure grueling physical labor. Many of the girls are repeatedly raped and forced into marrying militia fighters. All the children caught by the ADF are forced to accept Islam or be killed.   

To build their ranks, militias teach the abducted children to use weapons and force them to steal and kill on their behalf. If they don’t comply, they’re beaten or murdered.   

When children can escape, they often carry feelings of guilt and shame over the crimes they were forced to commit. Treatment for survivors of such egregious abuse involves much more than medical care alone, typically including years-long psychiatric treatment.  

The ADF routinely targets children from Christian communities as an attempted means of culling the Christian population and instilling fear into Christian families. Child survivors of attacks perpetrated by them have described horrific situations.  

One such child told his story to the news outlet, France 24.   

“The night I was abducted, they killed my mother and kidnapped my older sister and me,” the boy stated. “The slightest mistakes are severely punished. For women, they kill their children and throw them into a hole. They would send me to kill people on my own, and when I refused, I was whipped all over my body.”  

Another survivor explained that the ADF demands that those they attack convert to Islam.   

“They want everyone to learn Islam, and … there are those who refuse, and they get killed,” the survivor said.   

Esther, an 11-year-old girl, was abducted by the ADF in 2024 and described being repeatedly attacked by her abductors.   

“I was raped by four men successively,” Esther stated. “I [couldn’t handle] the pain of four men abusing me successively. I was wounded terribly, my body was deformed, and I had serious issues. I was worried I would become sterile in [the] future if I didn’t have medical treatment.”  

According to James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF, children are enduring horrific sexual abuse in the DRC.   

“During the most intense phase of [2025’s] conflict in Eastern DRC, a child was raped every 30 minutes,” Elder stated. “We’re not talking about isolated incidents. We are talking about a systemic crisis. We are seeing survivors as young as toddlers. It’s a weapon of war and a deliberate tactic of terror.”  

In December 2025, Reuters reported on specific incidents of sexual assault experienced by children in the DRC. A 10-year-old girl reported being raped to the point of losing consciousness and “excruciating pain” by M23 fighters in February 2025. Another case involved a 17-year-old girl who stated she was “gang raped by at least seven M23 soldiers during the battle for Goma in January.”  

Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who treated victims of sexual assault in the DRC for decades, told Reuters that the problems inflicted on the nation by terrorist groups are worse than he’s ever seen.  

“Congo is experiencing the most difficult and gruesome moment in its history,” Mukwege stated. “Today, our children are being massacred, our women are being killed, raped, or raped and then killed. It is one of the most dramatic crises our country has ever experienced.”  

In response to these atrocities, International Christian Concern (ICC) is working to assist orphanages in the DRC.  

We provide aid to Compassion for Children in Distress, a children’s home in Butembo, Eastern DRC that cares for over 70 child victims of the ADF. A caretaker at the orphanage, Mbambu Dorcas, explained the importance of the aid.  

“Every month, when the support … arrives, it’s like a reminder that we are not forgotten,” Dorcas stated. “These children have been through horrors no child should ever face, but here, they are slowly healing, laughing again, and dreaming. This funding is not just financial help; it is life, it is hope.”  

ICC is also helping to rebuild an orphanage that was badly burned in an electrical fire in the DRC. The orphanage was home to children whose Christian parents were killed by Islamic terrorists. Construction began in 2024 and is ongoing. ICC has provided monthly support for medicine and food for 150 children as construction continues.  

The orphanage mother wrote to ICC about the children being cared for in the home.  

“We are thankful to God for giving us this burden of receiving children from all over the Congo to give them a chance to live,” the caretaker stated. “All of them were rescued from villages after their parents were killed by Islamic rebels. Some were picked from their mother’s corpses as they [nursed], not knowing they were dead. Others were rescued from the forest after their parents were kidnapped and later killed. Millions of children in the Congo die after their parents are killed … But all in all, we have seen the hand of God in this work, and we are determined to continue rescuing orphans of war.”  

Story by Lynn Arias 

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