SW News: More than 10 people were killed and 39 injured on Sunday in a bomb attack on a church in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo claimed by Islamic State jihadists.
The incident took place in a Pentecostal church in Kasindi, a town in North Kivu province that is bordered by Uganda, according to Congolese military spokesman Antony Mualushayi.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which the Islamic State group claims to be its affiliate in central Africa, is believed to have carried out the attack, the DRC's communications ministry claimed on social media.
The ADF is among the deadliest of the more than 120 armed organizations that exist in eastern DRC, many of which are the result of the several regional conflicts that erupted around the turn of the century in the country. It has been charged with carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda and killing thousands of civilians in the Congo. On Sunday evening, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack and said nearly 20 people had been killed.
According to the latest report of Human Rights Watch, the junta in North Kivu and Ituri failed to curb widespread violence and atrocities by numerous armed groups against civilians. Armed groups and government forces killed more than 2,000 people between January and late October across both provinces.
Resurgent M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda, launched their biggest offensive against state forces in a decade, seizing portions of territory in North Kivu, which worsened the dire humanitarian situation in the region. According to the United Nations, about 5.6 million people were displaced nationwide as of July, with more than 1.6 million in Ituri and more than 1.8 million in only the provinces of North Kivu. In North Kivu, the M23 rebel group attacked the government troops near Goma.