Vatican News

An attack on Sunday on a Catholic Church in the town of Komanda, DRC, by militias of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), composed of former Ugandan rebels, has left around forty people dead.

 

A brutal attack in a Church in Eastern Congo was carried out on Sunday, 27 July by rebels supported by the Islamic State. Witnesses said members of the ADF stormed the premises in the town of Komanda during the night, killing approximately forty people.

 

According to Associated Press, the attackers stormed the Church at around 1 a.m. Several houses and shops were also burned. "The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the Catholic Church,“ a civil society leader said.

 

A UN-backed radio station said the attackers came from a stronghold located about 12 kilometres from the centre of Komanda and fled before security forces arrived.

 

As the search continues for victims and those wounded in the attack, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Ituri, told the AP news agency that the raid was carried out by men armed with machetes and guns.

 

Yet Another Deadly Attack on Civilians

The ADF operates in the border area between Uganda and Congo and has frequently launched attacks on the civilian population, killing thousands.

 

Just two weeks ago, 66 people were killed in the Irumu area. The group’s leader, Jamil Mukulu—a Christian convert to Islam— reportedly fled to Kenya. He was succeeded by Yusuf Kabanda, who allied with a secular Ugandan rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). Their common enemy is Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

 

After losing NALU as an ally in 2000, the group became increasingly radicalized and escalated its violence against local populations. One of the many attacks attributed to them occurred early last year in Baeti, also in the eastern part of the country, where at least eight people were killed, including five while praying.

 

The perpetrators of the attack were reportedly ADF rebels affiliated with ISIS. In that incident, more than thirty people were taken hostage during raids on several surrounding villages.