BUNIA: 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 rebels, originally formed from former Ugandan fighters and which pledged allegiance to Daesh in 2019, raided a Catholic church in the town of Komanda where worshippers were gathered for prayer, residents said.
“We heard gunfire near the parish church ... so far we have seen 35 bodies,” Dieudonne Katanabo, an Umoja neighborhood elder, said.
“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,” Father Aime Lokana Dhego, parish priest of the Blessed Anuarite parish of Komanda, said.
The priest added that seven other bodies had been discovered in the town.
