In the post-independence period, distrust between the Churches and the state grew, exacerbated in the early 1970s by attempts by the new Zairean government to secularise education. Since 2014, sporadic outbreaks of violence against Christians have occurred in North Kivu as part of the ongoing Kivu conflict. Massacres of approximately 645 people have been perpetrated by the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces rebel group which has been largely forced out of neighbouring Uganda.