Summer camp children killed in Congo church massacre

Image: Fides

Source: Fides, ACN

Children at a summer camp were among up to 40 people killed in a church massacre in the east of Democratic Republic of the Congo. Militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked the Catholic church in Komanda, Ituri, yesterday. Victims were shot and hacked to death with machetes.

Father Marcelo Oliveira, a Comboni missionary in North Kivu eastern province, told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that those killed were part of the Eucharistic Crusade movement, participating in a prayer vigil as part of summer holiday activities.

He said: "The attack occurred at around 1am in the morning. The rebels entered the church and murdered a large number of children, both inside the church building and in the compound. We continue to pray for peace in this immense country and to ask for the grace of peace."

The total death toll is unconfirmed but is believed to be around 40 people, but may be higher.

According to local UN-backed station Radio Okapi, 43 were killed. Rebels came from a stronghold located around 7.5 miles (12 km) away.

Radio Okapi also reported that ADF set fire to several homes and shops in Komanda, returning to the bush before the security forces arrived.

ADF is a terrorist group that has pledged loyalty to Daesh (ISIS). In 2021, Ugandan troops were invited into DR Congo to help fight ADF but attacks continue.

Komanda is in the mineral-rich Ituri Province, where clashes between armed groups led to more than 1.6 million being displaced by the end of 2023.

The country continues to be steeped in violence - in February ADF murdered around 70 people leaving their bodies in a Protestant church in Lubero, many of whom had been beheaded.

Several international organisations, including Italy's foreign ministry and the Bishops' Conference of France, have already publicly condemned this latest massacre.

Pope Leo XIV expressed sorrow and spiritual closeness following the deadly attack.

"May the blood of these martyrs become a seed of peace, reconciliation, fraternity, and love for the Congolese people," the Pope wrote in his message addressed to Archbishop Fulgence Muteba Mugalu, President of the Congolese Bishops' Conference on the Pope's behalf.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin said: "His Holiness Pope Leo XIV learned with dismay and deep sorrow of the attack perpetrated against the Parish of Blessed Anuarite in Komanda, which caused the death of several faithful gathered for worship. This tragedy calls us even more urgently to work for the integral human development of the martyred population of that region."

Concluding the message, Pope Leo XIV imparts his Apostolic Blessing upon the Parish of Blessed Anuarite, the mourning families, the faithful of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the entire nation.