BUNIA: More than 35 people were killed on Sunday in an attack by Allied Democratic Forces rebels in northeastern DR Congo, ending a months-long period of regional calm, sources said.

The ADF, originally formed from former Ugandan rebels and which pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019, raided a Catholic church in the town of Komanda where worshippers were gathered for prayer, complained residents of Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.

“Last night around 9pm, we heard gunfire near the parish church... so far we have seen 35 bodies,” Dieudonne Katanabo, an Umoja neighbourhood elder, said.

“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,” Father Aime Lokana Dhego, parish priest of the Blessed Anuarite parish of Komanda, said. The priest added that seven other bodies had been discovered in the town.

Likewise attributing the attack to “ADF rebels”, Christophe Munyanderu, coordinator of the local NGO Convention for the Respect of Human Rights, gave a provisional death toll of 38.

Army spokesman in Ituri, Lt Jules Ngongo, did not comment on the toll but confirmed the attack to AFP, stating that “the enemy is believed to have been identified among ADF” fighters. The bloodshed comes after months of calm in the region of Ituri, bordering Uganda.

The last major attack by the ADF was in February, leaving 23 dead in Mambasa territory.

The town of Komanda in Irumu territory is a commercial hub linking three other provinces —Tshopo, North Kivu, and Maniema.

The ADF has killed thousands of civilians and ramped up looting and killing in northeastern DRC despite the deployment both of the Ugandan army alongside Congolese armed forces in the area.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2025