At least 10 people were killed and 39 wounded Sunday in a bomb attack on a church in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo claimed by Islamic State jihadists.
Congolese military spokesman Antony Mualushayi said the โterrorist actโ happened in a Pentecostal church in North Kivu provinceโs Kasindi, a town on the border with Uganda.
The explosion killed at least 10 people and wounded 39, he added, revising up an initial death toll of five. Both tolls were provisional, the spokesman said.
But the spokesman for Ugandaโs military operation in the DRC, Bilal Katamba, said on Sunday evening that 16 people had been killed in the blast, and 20 wounded.
โThe attackers used an IED to carry out the attack and we suspect ADF is behind the attack,โ he added.
AFP was unable to independently confirm the death toll.
The DRCโs communications ministry said on social media that the attack was apparently carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) โ which the Islamic State group claims as its affiliate in central Africa.
The ADF is one of the deadliest of the more than 120 armed groups in eastern DRC, many of them the legacy of regional wars that flared at the turn of the century in the vast impoverished nation.
It has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda. ADF operatives have also planted bombs in towns in North Kivu in the past.
On Sunday evening, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack and said โnearly 20โ people had been killed, according to the specialised monitoring group Site intelligence group.
Army spokesman Mualushayi said a Kenyan suspect was arrested after the attack.
โGod saved meโ
A deacon at the evangelical church in Kasindi, Esdras Kambale Mupanya, said worshippers had gathered for a baptism ceremony before the bomb detonated.
โSeveral among us died on the spot, others had their feet cut in two,โ the 42-year-old told AFP. โGod saved me and I came out in good health with my choir members. Today was not the day I should die.โ
Fellow survivor Jean-Paul Syauswa said the explosion happened just after a group of people had been baptised, while a blind pastor was commenting on Bible verses.
โThe bomb threw me at least 100 metres (yards) away,โ he said.
Kiza Kivua, a 50-year-old farmer who lost his brother in the attack, said he was having trouble coming to terms with the loss of a โloved one who went to church to prayโ.
He added that he thought the government was neglecting its citizens.
โHow can such a situation happen when Kasindi is full of soldiers?โ Kivua said.
The DRCโs presidency condemned the bombing, as did the United Nations peacekeeping mission which described it as a โcowardly and despicable attackโ.
โ โMore visible and more lethalโ โ
In 2021, the United States labelled the ADF a โforeign terrorist organisationโ with links to the Islamic State group. The militia is active mainly in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province.
The same year, a joint Congolese-Ugandan military operation began targeting the ADF inside the DRC.
But the attacks have continued.
A report by independent experts for the UN Security Council, released in December, said the ADF had โcontinued its geographic expansionโ despite the Congolese-Ugandan military operation, killing at least 370 civilians since April 2022.
It also warned that the ADF was changing tactics, opting for โmore visible and more lethalโ bomb attacks in urban areas.
In April last year, for example, a woman detonated a suicide vest in a bar in North Kivuโs capital Goma, according to the independent UN experts. Six people died in the attack and 16 more were wounded.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi placed North Kivu and Ituri under a so-called state of siege in 2021 in a bid to stem the violence, with military officials replacing civilian administrators.
The measure has largely failed to stop attacks against civilians.
