Dozens killed in attack on church in the eastern DR Congo

Dozens of people were killed on Sunday in an attack on a church in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo believed to have been carried out by Islamic State-backed rebels.

Civil society leaders said suspected members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) stormed the building in the town of Komanda, armed with machetes and guns.

The attack took place as Catholic Christians attended an overnight prayer vigil at the church, run by the Caritas charity.

Several houses and shops were also burnt down and the search continues for missing people.

Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda in Ituri province, said it was “incredible” that an attack like this could occur in a town where security officials are present.

He has demanded a military intervention as soon as possible saying they had been told that “the enemy is still near our town”.

The ADF, with ties to the Islamic State, a rebel group that operates in the borderland between Uganda and the DRC, has routinely conducted attacks against civilians.

It was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following alleged discontent with Yoweri Museveni.

In 2002, following military assaults by Ugandan forces, the ADF moved its activities to neighbouring DRC and has since been responsible for the killings of thousands of civilians.

The United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Congo has condemned a recent resurgence in violence in Ituri.

Earlier this month, ADF killed dozens of people in the province in what a UN spokesperson described as a “bloodbath”.

The DRC army has long struggled against the rebel group, and has now been grappling with a complex web of attacks since renewed hostilities with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.