Monitoring Desk
BENI: At least 10 people were killed and 15 injured on Sunday in a suspected Islamist militant bomb blast at a Protestant church in the eastern Congolese city of Kasindi on the border with Uganda, an army spokesman Anthony Mualushay said via phone.
An army spokesman said the blast during a Sunday service was likely carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan militant group that has announced allegiance to the Islamic State (IS).
“Despite the tight security measures in place, the first indications show that the ADF group is behind this bomb blast,” Anthony Mualushay told Reuters news agency via phone.
The ADF group could not be reached for comment. The group has so far not claimed responsibility for the bomb blast.
Tense atmosphere after bomb blast
“I just returned from the scene, where I saw the dead bodies of children lying on the ground,” said Kasindi resident Alain Kitsa via phone. He described the atmosphere in the town as extremely tense.
This is the first time the ADF group targeted Kasindi since it stepped up attacks in the region in 2014, local territorial administrator Charles Omeonga told Reuters. He said the estimated death toll in the bombing was at least 10.
Kasindi is in a province of the Congo Republic where Congolese and Ugandan forces have launched a campaign against the ADF, which began as an uprising in Uganda; however, it has been based in Congo since the late 1990s.
It announced allegiance to Islamic State (IS) in mid-2019 and is accused of killing hundreds of villagers in frequent raids during the past two years.
