Suspected Islamists kill at least 5 people in east Congo church bomb attack

BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo, Jan 15 (Reuters) – At least five people were killed and 15 wounded in a suspected Islamist militant bomb attack during a Sunday service at a Protestant church in the eastern Congolese city of Kasindi, on the border with Uganda, the military said.

An army spokesman said the attack during a Sunday service was likely carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan militant group that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Other sources are putting the casualties as higher. 

AT LEAST 10 people have been killed after a bomb exploded inside a packed church during a Sunday service. . . At least 39 others others are believed to have been injured in the blast that happened in a pentecostal church in the town of Kasindi in North Kivu.

Videos and pictures from the scene show chaos as people were left fleeing the scene screaming or helping carry others out of the church. “I just came back from the scene, where I saw the bodies of children on the ground,” said witness Alain Kitsa.

Military spokesman Antony Mualushayi described the attack as a “terrorist act”.

The ADF has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in neighbouring Uganda. It has planted bombs in towns in North Kivu in the past.

Since 2021 a joint Ugandan-Congolese military operation has been targeting the ADF in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province. Over 120 armed groups roam mineral-rich eastern DRC