Local officials say dozens of people were killed in an attack by an Islamic State affiliate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s northeast.
According to reports, over 20 people were killed while attending a night vigil at a church in Komanda when they were ambushed by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) fighters.
Nearby shops and businesses were plundered and set ablaze.
The ADF started in Uganda in the 1990s, accusing the government of persecuting Muslims, but it is now based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it regularly kills people of all religions, as well as in Uganda.
It is now part of the Islamic State’s Central African Province, which also has a group in Mozambique.
According to BBC Monitoring, affiliates in Africa currently carry out roughly 90% of all IS operations.
Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society organiser in Komanda, told the Associated Press that more bodies could be discovered following the new attack.
“More than 21 people were shot dead inside and outside [the church], and we have recorded at least three charred bodies and several houses burnt. But the search is continuing.”
Father Aime Lokana Dhego, a local priest, told the AFP news agency, “We have at least 31 dead members of the Eucharistic Crusade movement, with six seriously injured. Some young people were kidnapped; we have no news of them.”
He stated that seven other bodies have been discovered elsewhere in town.
The UN-sponsored Radio Okapi website estimated the death toll at 43.
An army spokesperson confirmed that ten people had died.
In 2021, the Democratic Republic of the Congo invited Ugandan troops to help against the ADF. Attacks, however, persist.
Komanda is located in the mineral-rich Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where several armed factions have fought for control for many years.
