KOMANDA, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo — A local civil society leader said that an attack on a Catholic church in eastern Congo on Sunday, July 27, 2025, killed at least 34 people. The attack, which was blamed on Islamic State-backed rebels, also set fire to a number of homes and businesses in the town of Komanda, Ituri province.
Dieudonne Duranthabo, who works for a civil society group in Komanda, told the Associated Press that the attackers broke into the church at 1 a.m. “The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are getting ready to bury them in a mass grave that we are making in a Catholic church compound,” Duranthabo said, showing how bad things are.
Videos posted online from the scene seemed to show buildings on fire and bodies on the floor of the church. Some eyewitnesses cried as they named some of the victims, while others stood in awe, trying to deal with the catastrophe.
Before the church attack, at least five other individuals were slain in an attack on the nearby community of Machongani. Another civil society activist in Ituri, Lossa Dhekana, said, “They took a lot of people into the bush; we don’t know where they are going or how many there are.”
Members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF), an armed organization known for using weapons and machetes, are thought to have carried out both attacks.
Lt. Jules Ngongo, a spokesperson for the Congolese army in Ituri, said that at least 10 people died in the attack on the Komanda church. Radio Okapi, which is funded by the UN, reported a higher death toll of 43, citing security sources. Reports say that the terrorists came from a stronghold around 12 kilometers (7 miles) from Komanda and ran away before security forces could get there.
Duranthabo sharply criticized the violence in what he described as “a town where all security officials are present.” He frantically asked for military help, saying, “The enemy is still close to our town.”
In recent years, other armed organizations, like as the ADF and rebels backed by Rwanda, have carried out deadly attacks in eastern Congo. The ADF, which has publicly said it is connected to the Islamic State, mostly works in the area between Uganda and Congo and often attacks people. Earlier this month, the group killed dozens of people in Ituri. A UN spokeswoman called the event a “bloodbath.”
The ADF started out as a bunch of minor groups in Uganda in the late 1990s, and they say they were unhappy with President Yoweri Museveni’s leadership. After Ugandan troops attacked them in 2002, the organization moved its operations to the nearby Congo. It has killed thousands of civilians since then and declared allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019. The Congolese army (FARDC) has been having a hard time keeping the organization under control for a long time, especially now that the M23 rebel movement is back in the news and is said to be getting help from Rwanda.