Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
The 2006 Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) upholds the secular character of the State (Article 1) and proclaims respect for pluralism of opinion (Article 24). The constitution forbids all forms of discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin, religion, or opinion (Article 13), and it states that all persons in the country have the right to freely manifest their religion in public and in private (Article 22).[1]
There is freedom to build churches and raise funds for religious activities from both inside and outside the country. All religious groups have the freedom to engage in proselytism, including teaching children about religion. Some preachers do so in markets, street junctions, and on public buses.
Religion is taught in school and is part of the official curriculum. The constitution states that “national educational establishments shall ensure, in cooperation with the religious authorities, that students whose parents request it are educated according to their religious convictions.” Additionally, in Article 74, God is mentioned, and the elected President must “swear before God and the Nation” in the oath of office. [2]
In 1977, the government of the then Republic of Zaire (former country name) signed the Schools Convention with the Catholic, Protestant, Kimbanguist, and Islamic communities.[3] In 2016, the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a framework agreement with the Holy See regarding matters of common interest, including “the institutions of Catholic education, the teaching of religion in schools, the welfare and charitable activities of the Church, pastoral care in the armed forces and prison and hospital institutions, as well as property tax, the obtaining of entry visas and residence permits for religious personnel.”[4]
A number of religious groups run a wide range of institutions, such as schools, health centres, orphanages, and media outlets. Most TV channels and radio stations in the capital Kinshasa belong to different Christian communities.
Although the State is secular, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) and the Ecumenical Council of Congo (COE) play a significant role in political affairs,[5] paying attention to social, educational, and economic areas.
In March 2023, President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi enacted Ordinance-Law No. 23/009, later ratified by Parliament. Replacing the repressive 1996 press law, it provides a more modern framework for press freedom, however, it does not decriminalise press offences, allowing for the continued criminal prosecution of journalists. The law also introduces the concept of “bad faith”, enabling penalties for the dissemination of “false news” that disrupts public order, particularly when related to the armed forces or state authority. Its vague language grants authorities broad discretion in interpretation and enforcement.[6]
On 13 March 2024, the Ministry of Justice of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) officially announced the government’s decision to lift the moratorium on the death penalty, which was officially introduced in 2000 but came into effect in 2003. Capital punishment would henceforth be applied to crimes including treason, terrorism, espionage, war-related offences, rebellion, and criminal association. The government justified the decision as a means to eliminate “traitors” within the military and to combat urban terrorism.[7] By early January 2025, reports confirmed that at least 170 individuals were transferred to another prison in order to be executed.[8]
In July 2024, the Ministry of Justice announced that churches could no longer be built within 500 metres of an existing church. The new rule has been widely interpreted an an attempt to limit the proliferation of charismatic and Pentecostal churches.[9]
Incidents and development
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is consistently ranked among the world’s poorest countries. Despite its vast natural wealth, over 62 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.[10] Corruption, mismanagement, and protracted conflict continue to undermine governance and hinder development.
In May 2024, the DRC formed a new government, ending a five-month delay following President Felix Tshisekedi's re-election in December. The announcement of the 54-member cabinet came just 10 days after an attempted coup was foiled, adding urgency to the formation.[11]
Tshisekedi has faced criticism for failing to effectively utilise the nation’s vast mineral resources, estimated at $24 trillion, including cobalt and coltan. Despite significant revenues flowing into state coffers, poverty remains widespread, with the DRC ranked among the world’s five poorest nations by the World Bank. The country’s wealth continues to be siphoned off, exacerbated by nearly three decades of conflict in the east, a spillover from the Rwandan genocide.[12]
Since early 2023, the security situation in the DRC has significantly worsened, particularly in the eastern regions, where over 120 armed groups operate vie for control of the country’s mineral wealth.[13] These include the March 23 Movement (M23), a Tutsi-led rebel paramilitary group backed by Rwanda, which has launched major offensives and caused large-scale civilian displacement in North and South Kivu. M23 has used the illegal exploitation of minerals such as cobalt to fund its operations.[14] In 2024, DRC was, apart from Syria, the country most affected by Islamic State (IS) activity in terms of number of fatalities. The broader conflict in the DRC has continued to deteriorate, with IS-linked group ADF playing a significant role in driving displacement.[15]
Among the many of groups engaged in violent competition for control of mineral-rich territories is the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF), a militant Islamist faction which originated in Uganda and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2017. In 2019 it was accepted as part of the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province (ISCAP).[16] A 2024 study showed the ADF to be the deadliest of the armed groups in eastern DRC that year, accounting for 52 percent of civilian deaths.[17] Since aligning with the Islamic State (IS), the ADF have intensified attacks against both Congolese security forces and civilians. Despite ongoing military operations targeting the group, it remains a major threat to national security.[18]
Although much of the violence is not religiously motivated, the country’s ongoing instability, armed conflict, and deepening humanitarian crisis have serious implications for religious freedom.[19] In conflict zones, communities face disruption of religious life, restrictions on worship, and increased vulnerability of religious minorities and leaders. These challenges are further exacerbated by explicitly religiously motivated attacks, particularly in the eastern regions of the country, where Christians face significant challenges due to attacks by Islamist militant groups that deliberately target churches and religious gatherings.[20]
The number of incidents recorded during the reporting period is too high to list exhaustively. Below is a selection of the most significant cases. [21]
In January 2023, ADF militants detonated a bomb during a church service in Kasindi,[22] North Kivu province, resulting in the deaths of 14 Christians and leaving 63 others injured. This attack was part of a broader pattern of violence against the Christian community in the region. In March 2023, over a two-week period, ADF militants killed 72 Christians in eastern DRC, forcing thousands to flee their homes. Among these attacks, 31 Christians, mostly women and children, were massacred in one instance.[23]
Between 31 July and 14 August 2023, the ADF carried out a series of deadly raids on villages in Ituri and North Kivu provinces, resulting in the deaths of at least 55 civilians. One of the incidents occurred in Batangi-Mbau, Beni territory, where 19 people were killed in a single night.[24] During the night of 23 to 24 October 2023, ADF militants launched a violent attack on the neighbourhood of Masosi, near Oicha in North Kivu province. 26 people were killed, including at least 12 children. The attackers set fire to 12 homes and looted several shops. A local Christian youth leader reported that the sustained gunfire, which lasted nearly an hour, clearly indicated the scale of the assault — far exceeding that of a typical robbery — and triggered widespread panic as residents fled for their lives.[25]
In mid-November 2023, ADF militants carried out a brutal assault on a village in Beni territory, eastern DRC, killing at least 19 civilians with machetes and other weapons after binding their victims. The attack triggered widespread panic, prompting residents to flee.[26]
In December 2023, Fr Léopold Feyen, aged 82 and affectionately known as “Koko Pol”, was brutally stabbed to death in his home in the Masina district of Kinshasa after intruders broke into his bedroom. A Salesian priest with about 40 years of missionary service and youth outreach in DRC, he continued to support local schools and community initiatives despite his declining health.[27]
In the first half of 2024, 698 Christians were killed in Africa by the Islamic State, according to a report from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a U.S.-based monitoring organization. The report highlighted that 92 percent of these fatalities occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), out of five African countries — DRC, Mozambique, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Mali.[28]
On 30 January 2024, ADF militants attacked a Branhamist Pentecostal church in Beni territory, killing five people with machetes. The assailants also abducted 30 individuals, taking them hostage.[29]
In February 2024, militants attacked a church meeting in the village of Manzia, murdering at least 15 Christians, including the lead pastor, Alphonse Mumbere. His family survived the attack.[30] That same month, the ADF raided another church in Bayeti, abducting the pastor and his wife while killing five people, including the pastor’s children.
In May 2024, Pope Francis condemned the killing of 14 Catholics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), [31] reportedly murdered for refusing to convert to Islam. The victims, including several young people, were killed in North Kivu by the ISIS-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). During a public address, the Pope honoured their witness, stating: “I would like to stop and thank God for the testimony of martyrdom that a group of Catholics from Congo, from North Kivu, have given in recent days.”[32]
Between 4 and 7 June 2024, suspected ADF militants launched a series of coordinated attacks on villages across Beni territory in North Kivu, killing between 42 and 57 civilians through beheadings, gunfire, and arson. These assaults formed part of a broader escalation of violence that raised the death toll to approximately 150 by mid-June.[33]
On 8 June 2024, suspected Islamic State–affiliated rebels, believed to be members of the ADF, launched a wave of overnight attacks across multiple villages in Beni territory, killing at least 38 civilians using firearms and machetes. According to local officials and civil society leaders, the assailants exploited gaps in security coverage, allowing them to strike unopposed in several dispersed communities across the region.[34]
Following the attacks, on 18 June 2024, Bishop Melchisédec Sikuli Paluku of the Diocese of Butembo-Beni issued an urgent appeal to national authorities, calling for an end to the suffering of the Congolese people. In his statement, he strongly condemned the brutal massacres and systematic abuses perpetrated by the ISIS-affiliated ADF in North Kivu. Emphasising the ongoing anguish of the region, he urged the government to take concrete measures to restore security and dignity to the population of his diocese.[35]
On 24 July 2024, the remains of more than 30 individuals were discovered in the Batangi‑Mbau area of Beni territory, North Kivu, following a brutal assault on a Christian community carried out by ADF. Many victims had been decapitated.[36]
Further attacks occurred beyond the reporting period. In January 2025, the Rwanda-backed M23 forces captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu and the largest city in eastern DRC, with more than 2,000 deaths, another 2,000 injured and widespread sexual violence.[37] The United Nations peacekeeping force MONUSCO had ended its mission to the South Kivu in June 2024[38] and in January 2025, its provincial capital, Bukavu, also fell to M23.[39]
Between 12 and 15 February 2025, more than 70 bodies were discovered inside a Protestant church in the village of Maiba, near Lubero in North Kivu province. The victims — including women, children, and the elderly — had reportedly been bound and subsequently decapitated. On 12 February, militants believed to be members of the ADF had taken approximately 100 people hostage in Maiba and later brought them to the church, where they were executed.[40]
The Catholic Church and civil society organisations have long played a critical role in drawing attention to political abuses and social injustices, while also supporting education, healthcare, and peacebuilding efforts. Throughout the reporting period the Catholic Church continued to denounce the unrelenting violence in DRC.[41]
In January 2023, Pope Francis made the first visit of a pontiff to Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1985 and denounced the despoilation of mineral resources by international players. “Hands off the Democratic Republic of Congo,” he said. “Stop choking Africa. It is not a mine to stripped or a terrain to be plundered.”[42]
On 16 June 2023, the Catholic bishops of the Bukavu ecclesiastical province, which includes Goma and Butembo-Beni, issued a strongly worded appeal entitled “May the government take on its responsibilities”, addressing the deepening crisis in eastern DRC and condemning the State’s failure to protect its citizens. In their joint statement, the bishops denounced the government’s inability to contain the violence perpetrated by armed militias — who have seized control of resource-rich areas and reignited conflict through terror tactics. They described how these groups have severely disrupted pastoral activities, massacring civilians even within zones under supposed military protection. The bishops also criticised the government’s reliance on foreign forces with unclear mandates and called for full accountability in safeguarding the population.[43]
In October 2023, the Bishops of the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa (ACEAC), proposed a Pastoral Plan for Peace, which was unveiled in Goma in January-February 2024. Bishop Moko urged Africa’s political leaders and those of the Great Lakes region as well as the international community to come together and help resolve the crisis in Goma.[44]
In August 2024, CEDCO issued a strong statement urging the governments of the DRC and Rwanda to respect a newly signed ceasefire agreement aimed at stabilizing Eastern Congo. They emphasized the humanitarian crisis caused by the violence, which had displaced over 5.5 million people, and appealed to the international community to prioritise the DRC's situation as much as other global conflicts like those in Ukraine and the Middle East.[45]
The public statements by the bishop’s conferences sparked retaliatory criticism of the episcopate by members of the government, particularly by Deputy Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Bemba. On 4 December 2024, Bemba, speaking on Top Congo FM accused members of the clergy — whom he described as “politicians in robes” — of delivering hate-filled speeches against the government. He further claimed that President Tshisekedi had allocated US $1 million to each of the 47 Catholic dioceses for charitable and development initiatives, alleging mismanagement of the funds. The Congolese Episcopal Conference (CENCO) issued a statement denouncing Bemba’s remarks as “astonishing, discourteous, and threatening.”[46] CENCO clarified that each diocese had received US $600,000 (in two instalments) and affirmed that the funds had been used for social projects, with all expenditures duly reported to the presidency.[47]
In January 2025, the CEDCO and the Church of Christ in the Congo, a union of 62 Protestant congregations, published a road map for peace entitled the “Social Pact for Peace and Living Together in the DRC and the Great Lakes”. It received a cold reception from the government, which baulked at its proposal of directs talks with M23. In February 2025, allies of the government accused Catholic and Protestant leaders of treason after they met M23 leaders in Goma, and later that month the authorities temporarily confiscated the passport of Archbishop Fulgence Muteba, the President of CENCO.[48]
In February 2025, the Bishops’ Conference of Congo (CENCO) warned against pastors who were “exploiting the platforms of their churches…to incite discrimination, hatred, and violence against other Congolese men and women because of their origin, language, or morphology”. People should not be misled, they said, by pastors who were preaching “the hunting down of Swahili-speakers” as an expression of patriotism.[49]
In June 2025, DRC and Rwanda signed a peace agreement in Washington,[50] and a few weeks later, in Qatar, M23 signed a ceasefire agreement with the DRC government. It did not, however, commit to withdrawing from territory it had occupied.[51]
During the period under review, repeated criticism was directed at the episcopate by members of the Government, particularly by Deputy Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Bemba. On 4th December 2024, Bemba, speaking on Top Congo FM, accused members of the clergy—whom he described as “politicians in robes”—of delivering hate-filled speeches against the government. He further claimed that President Tshisekedi had allocated US $1 million to each of the 47 Catholic dioceses for charitable and development initiatives, suggesting mismanagement of the funds. The Congolese Episcopal Conference (CENCO) issued a statement denouncing Bemba’s remarks as “astonishing, discourteous, and threatening.” [52] CENCO clarified that each diocese had received US $600,000 (in two instalments) and affirmed that the funds had been used for social projects, with all expenditures duly reported to the Presidency. [53]
Prospects for freedom of religion
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite its vast mineral wealth, continues to grapple with extreme poverty, chronic insecurity, and systemic corruption. Armed conflicts are driven by numerous rebel groups including Islamist militias and so contribute to serious violations of fundamental human rights including religious freedom.
The DRC is currently experiencing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. More than 25 million people require humanitarian assistance,[54] and over seven million are internally displaced.[55] Ongoing violence, sexual violence and exploitation, food insecurity, disease outbreaks, and the collapse of essential public services have created dire conditions, particularly in the eastern provinces.[56] Due to weakness in the face of M23, the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) has formed alliances with local militia groups, reflecting a tactical shift but raising serious concerns about accountability, civilian safety, and the future of peacebuilding in the region.[57]
This environment severely undermines religious freedom across the country. In addition to the broader instability, Islamist militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have carried out brutal massacres specifically targeting Christian communities resulting in killings, abductions, and the destruction of places of worship. As violence persists and state protection remains weak or absent in many areas, the prospects for religious freedom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo appear increasingly bleak.
Sources
Democratic Republic of the Congo