KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — At least 21 people were killed on Sunday in an attack on church premises in eastern Congo by Islamic State-backed rebels, according to a civil society leader.
The attack was carried out by members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) around 1 a.m. inside the premises of a Catholic church in eastern Congo’s Komanda. Several houses and shops were also burnt.
“More than 21 people were shot dead inside and outside and we have recorded at least three charred bodies and several houses burned. But the search is continuing,” Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, told The Associated Press.
Earlier this month, the group killed dozens of people in Ituri in what a United Nations spokesperson described as a bloodbath.
A spokesperson for the Congolese army in Ituri province, where Komanda is located, confirmed 10 dead.
“What we know this morning is that there was an incursion by armed men with machetes into a church not far from Komanda, where about 10 people were killed and massacred and some shops were set on fire,” Lt. Jules Ngongo, the DRC Army’s spokesperson in Ituri, said.
The ADF, with ties with the Islamic State, is a rebel group that operates in the borderland between Uganda and Congo, has routinely conducted attacks against civilian populations.
“We are truly disappointed because it is incredible that such a situation could occur in a town where all the security officials are present,” Duranthabo said. “Some citizens have started fleeing the area and are heading towards Bunia.
“We demand military intervention as soon as possible, since we are told the enemy is still near our town.”
The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following alleged discontent with Yoweri Museveni.
In 2002, following military assaults by Ugandan forces, the group moved its activities to neighboring DRC and has since been responsible for the killings of thousands of civilians. In 2019, it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The ADF’s leadership conceives of an Islamist government in the East African country.
The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) has long struggled against the rebel group, and it has now been grappling with a complex web of attacks since the renewed hostilities between the Rwanda-backed M23.
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Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria
