At least 35 people were killed Sunday in an attack by Allied Democratic Forces rebels in northeastern DR Congo, ending a months-long period of regional calm, local sources said.
The ADF, originally formed from former Ugandan rebels and which pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019, raided a Catholic church in the town of Komanda where worshippers were gathered for prayer, residents said by telephone from Bunia, capital of Ituri province.
鈥楲ast night around 9:00pm (1900 GMT), we heard gunfire near the parish church... so far we have seen 35 bodies,鈥� Dieudonne Katanabo, an Umoja neighbourhood elder, said.
鈥榃e 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,鈥� Father Aime Lokana Dhego, parish priest of the Blessed Anuarite parish of Komanda, said.
The priest added that seven other bodies had been 聽discovered in the town.
Likewise attributing the attack to 鈥楢DF rebels鈥�, Christophe Munyanderu, coordinator of the local NGO Convention for the Respect of Human Rights, gave a provisional death toll of 38.
Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, army spokesman in Ituri, did not comment on the toll but confirmed the attack to AFP, stating that 鈥榯he enemy is believed to have been identified among ADF鈥� rebels.
The bloodshed comes after months of calm in the region of Ituri, bordering Uganda.
The last major attack by the ADF was in February, leaving 23 dead in Mambasa territory.
The town of Komanda in Irumu territory is a commercial hub linking three other provinces 鈥� Tshopo, North Kivu, and Maniema.
The ADF, originally Ugandan rebels who are predominantly Muslim, has killed thousands of civilians and ramped up looting and killing in northeastern DRC despite the deployment both of the Ugandan army alongside Congolese armed forces in the area.
At the end of 2021, Kampala and Kinshasa launched a joint military operation against the ADF, dubbed 鈥楽hujaa鈥�, which has so far been unable to dislodge the group.
