In an attack by a Ugandan rebel group on a Catholic church in northeastern Congo, more than thirty people were killed early Sunday morning. The last major attack by this group was months ago.
The attack happened early Sunday morning in Komanda, a town in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, writes news agency Reuters. An ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) rebel group stormed a church of the Eucharistic Crusade movement in that town early Sunday morning, where believers were participating in the night mass.
They attacked the believers with guns and machetes. “The rebels mainly attacked Christians who spent the night in the Catholic church,” a local human rights activist told Reuters.
According to local authorities, there were 38 deaths and 15 injuries. A number of people also went missing. “Some young people have been kidnapped and we have no news about them,” pastor Abbé Aimé Lokana Dhego told news agency AFP.
Rebel group is affiliated with IS
Local administrators confirm that the ADF is behind the attack. The armed group was founded in Uganda in the 1990s and has ties to the Islamic State. In 2001, the Ugandan army defeated the ADF and the rebel group fled to eastern Congo. From there, the ADF carries out attacks on military and civilian targets.
The last major attack by the ADF was in February this year. That resulted in 23 deaths in Mambasa, a town that, like Komanda, is located in Ituri province.