At least 17 people have been killed and about 20 others injured in a bomb attack on Sunday on an evangelical church in Kasindi, a border town between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, according to the Congolese government, which attributed the attack to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The spokesman of the operational command Sokola I of the North Kivu region, scene of the explosion, Captain Anthony Mualushayi, confirmed the arrest of a suspect of Kenyan nationality for interrogation.
The government has «strongly» condemned this attack perpetrated in the middle of a mass celebrated in the 8th Community of Pentecostal Churches of Congo and which would be «evidently» the work of the ADF, according to the Congolese news portal Actualité.
«The security services have taken control of the site following an explosion that caused several deaths and material damage. The injured are being evacuated to medical facilities,» the Congolese Ministry of Communication has explained. «Investigations are underway to detect the origin of this terrorist act,» it added.
The authorities have reiterated the recommendations to «avoid crowds» and «be vigilant» in this area which is a recurrent target of ADF attacks, in particular on the Beni-Kasindi road.
«The results of the ongoing preliminary investigations will be communicated in the coming hours. The government wishes to convey its saddest condolences to the families of the victims of this despicable terrorist act,» said government spokesman Patrick Muyaya, quoted by Radio Okapi.
The ADF is a Ugandan group created in the 1990s particularly active in eastern DRC and accused of the killing of hundreds of civilians in this part of the country.
The group went through a split in 2019 after Musa Baluku – sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States – swore allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), under whose banner it has been acting ever since. The increase of its attacks on Ugandan soil and the claim of an attack in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, led both countries to launch joint operations in eastern DRC.
POPE’S VISIT The attack comes just days before the start of Pope Francis’ visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, a trip scheduled to take place between January 31 and February 5.
The trip was scheduled for July 2022, but according to the Vatican it was postponed for health reasons, although some Italian media attributed the cancellation of the trip to security reasons. In fact, according to the new program of the trip, Francis has cancelled the stopover in Goma, in North Kivu, where this attack took place.
However, the worsening of the conflict in the region is expected to be at the center of the Pope’s trip, who is scheduled to meet in Kinshasa with victims of the conflicts in the east of the country.
In a second phase, the Pope will meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Primate of the Anglican Church, in South Sudan. This unprecedented ecumenical trip focuses on the work of reconciliation between the country’s tribal factions, which have been engaged in a bloody civil war since independence in 2011.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
