The number of people killed in a ferocious attack on a Catholic church in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to 34, civil society officials said on Sunday. The massacre is thought to have been executed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic State-aligned militia group.
Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, Ituri province, said that the victims' bodies were still at the site of the church. "Volunteers are digging a mass grave inside the church compound," he said.
The assault occurred at 1 am when gunmen launched an attack on the church, killing dozens. Some nearby houses and shops were also torched during the attack.
In a second attack earlier in the day, at least five people died in the neighboring village of Machongani. Lossa Dhekana, another civil society activist in Ituri, said that some residents were taken away by the attackers and into the forest. Their number and location is not known.
Although the Congolese army confirmed 10 deaths at the church, local sources and UN-supported media estimated the total number of fatalities to be more than 40. Radio Okapi, a United Nations-funded radio station, reported 43 fatalities based on security sources. It also showed that the attackers came from an ADF stronghold approximately 12 kilometers from Komanda and escaped before security agents could act.
Video footage from the aftermath showed the church’s interior littered with bodies and debris. Survivors and families were seen mourning at the scene, some frozen in shock while others wept uncontrollably.
Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, Ituri army spokesperson, confirmed the assault and re-emphasized the critical need for military deployment in the region. Duranthabo supported the call, wondering how the violence could occur in a security-populated town. "We need military intervention right away. The adversary is said to remain nearby," he asserted.
Attacks have recently been on the rise within the region by armed groups, including both the ADF and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The ADF was originally a Ugandan rebel group in the late 1990s; however, following a series of offensives by the Ugandan military, it relocated its operations to Congo in 2002 and had since been connected with the death of thousands of civilians. Recently, the group has declared allegiance to the Islamic State, with the official declaration coming in 2019.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Armed Forces (FARDC) are still fighting to rein in the activities of the group, even as wider conflict in the country intensifies.
