At least ten people were killed and 39 injured on Sunday (January 15th) in a bomb attack in a church in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), attributed by the authorities to an armed group affiliated with the Islamic State .
This "
terrorist act
" took place in a Pentecostal (evangelical Protestant) church in Kasindi, a border town with Uganda in the Congolese province of North Kivu, explained the spokesman for the DRC army, Antony Mualushayi .
He reported 10 dead and 39 injured and the arrest of a suspect of Kenyan nationality, adding that investigations were underway.
For his part, the spokesman for the Ugandan military operation in the DRC, Bilal Katamba, mentioned 16 dead and 20 injured.
Islamic State claims responsibility for the attack
“
The attackers used a homemade bomb to carry out the attack and we suspect the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) were behind this attack
,” he added.
In a tweet, the Congolese Ministry of Communication also spoke of a “
bomb attack visibly perpetrated by ADF terrorists
”.
AFP was unable to independently confirm the death toll.
On Sunday evening, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack which, according to it, left “
nearly 20
” dead, according to the monitoring group of Islamist networks Site.
Convictions are on the rise
The ADF, Muslim rebels of Ugandan origin, are active in the north of North Kivu and in the south of Ituri, another Congolese province.
They are among the deadliest of some 120 armed groups present in eastern DRC, many of which are the legacy of regional conflicts that erupted at the turn of the 21st century.
These groups seek to control territories for ethnic reasons and/or to extract rich resources from the soil, often encouraged and financed by neighboring countries.
The DRC presidency condemned the attack, as did the UN peacekeeping mission, which called it a "
cowardly and despicable attack
".
On Twitter, the French Embassy said it was "
horrified
".
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A deacon of the evangelical church of Kasindi, Esdras Kambale Mupanya, told AFP that the faithful had gathered for a baptism before the explosion of the bomb.
"Half Feet"
“
Several of us died on the spot, others had their feet cut in half
,” testified this 42-year-old man.
Another survivor, Jean-Paul Syauswa, said the explosion happened while a blind pastor was commenting on Bible verses.
"
The bomb threw me at least 100 meters further
," he said.
Kiza Kivua, a 50-year-old farmer who lost his brother in the attack, blames the government for neglecting its citizens.
“
How can such a situation happen when there are plenty of soldiers in Kasindi
,” he wonders.
“
Most lethal
” operations
The ADF, accused of having massacred thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda, was placed in 2021 by the United States in its list of "
foreign terrorist organizations
", in connection with the Islamic State group.
Also since 2021, a joint Congolese-Ugandan military operation has begun targeting the ADF in Congolese territory.
But the attacks continued.
The ADF "
continued their geographic expansion
" in the DRC, killing since April 2022 "
at least 370 civilians
", according to a report by the UN Security Council's group of experts on the DRC on December 16.
They also abducted "
374 people
", "
looted and burned hundreds of houses and destroyed and looted health centres, mainly in search of medical supplies
". According to this group of experts, they also "
opted for operations more visible and more deadly
”, using improvised explosive devices “
in urban areas
”.
In April 2022, for example, a woman wearing an explosive vest carried out a suicide attack in a bar in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, killing six and injuring 16, according to the report.
State of siege
Since May 2021, North Kivu and Ituri have been placed under a "
state of siege
" by Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, in an attempt to stop the violence, with military officials replacing civilian administrators.
But this exceptional measure has also largely failed to stem the attacks.
For a week, at least sixty civilians have been killed in Ituri.
On Wednesday, "
eight civilians
" were "
murdered by ADF rebels
" in Irumu territory, according to Dieudonné Lossa, civil society coordinator for Ituri.
The other victims were after attacks attributed to Codeco (Cooperative for the Development of Congo), a militia of several thousand men who claim to protect the Lendu tribe, against the Hema tribe and the national army.
Dieudonné Lossa regrets that the numbers of the armed forces of the DRC have recently been "
reduced
" in Ituri, and partly "
brought back
" to North Kivu to fight another armed group, the M23, a Tutsi rebellion supported according to Kinshasa by Rwanda.
