President Donald Trump announced a peace deal for the DRC in June. But local combatants, sources say, only appear willing to get it to work in the area around the eastern city of Goma. The ADF, by contrast, is increasing its attacks. This area is almost exclusively Christian. The ADF attackers are all Islamist militants bent, observers say, on forcing Christians off their land and determined to stop Christians from practicing their faith.

DRC forces are trying to push back against the ADF. But as one local source told Fox News Digital, “it’s largely insufficient.”

Following last month’s attack, a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “The Trump administration condemns in the strongest terms this horrific violence against Christians in the DRC and is committed to advancing the Washington Accords to bring peace back to the region and end targeted killings.”

A screenshot shows villagers inspecting the damage left by jihadi terrorists who killed 49 Christians in DR Congo in July. (Open Doors)

A Christian leader with on-the-ground knowledge added, “if the Trump administration can pay attention to what’s happening in the east of the DRC with ADF as they do, maybe with other countries like Ukraine, I think they can mount pressure on the DRC government and even support them to address these ADF attacks more properly.”

“If these people, these powers that be, and that can change things, can see this as a family, as a child whose father no longer lives. If they can just see it as people, not numbers, it’s not incidents, it’s people. It’s like their lives are less worth it, less worth being spoken of. And I don’t think that’s right. Everybody deserves to live.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for comment, but did not receive a response.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.