At least 38 people were killed and 15 others injured when suspected members of the Islamic State (IS)-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked civilians during a vigil at a Catholic church in a town in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The assault took place around 1 a.m. in the town of Komanda in Ituri province, where gunmen armed with firearms and machetes stormed the church and killed worshippers gathered for prayers.
Father Aime Lokana Dhego, a local priest, told AFP that most of the victims were members of Catholic youth group Eucharistic Crusade. “We have at least 31 dead members of the Eucharistic Crusade movement, with six seriously injured. Some young people were kidnapped, we have no news of them.”
Congo: Islamists murdered 38 Christian civilians during their worship service in Komanda.
Many others were injured and some remain missing after the Muslims attacked them inside their church with machetes and firearms.
Pray for the Christian families affected by this nightmare.… pic.twitter.com/1G11cqK0mO
— Christian Emergency Alliance (@ChristianEmerg1) July 27, 2025
“The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing to bury them in a mass grave within the compound of the Catholic church,” Dieudonné Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, told the Associated Press.
Alongside the reported killings and abductions, the attackers also looted and torched shops and businesses in Komanda, according to reports.
Earlier that same day, a separate attack in the nearby village of Machongani, also believed to have been carried out by the ADF, left five people dead.
Local leaders are calling for urgent military intervention to prevent further attacks. “We demand military intervention as soon as possible, since we are told the enemy is still near our town,” Duranthabo said.
The ADF operates along the border between Uganda and the DRC and has repeatedly carried out attacks on civilian populations. Originally formed in Uganda in the 1990s, the group reportedly pledged allegiance to the IS in 2019 and now functions as part of its Central Africa Province branch.
According to BBC Monitoring, nearly 90% of attacks linked to the IS now originate from its African affiliates.
The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC has condemned the recent resurgence of violence in Ituri. Earlier this month, ADF militants killed dozens in the province, which a UN spokesperson described as a “bloodbath.”
