Photo of a Congo Church blasted in a similar manner in 2021. Source: Twitter
Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC): A bomb went off inside a DRC church on Sunday, leaving people dead and others injured.
Body hauling onto pickup trucks could be seen in several video footages circulating on social media.
According to local reports, the tragedy occurred in the Kasindi Lubiriha church in North Kivu at the time when a group of people had gathered to attend a Baptism ceremony.
Congregants inside the church are seen staggering after the explosion and loading injured parishioners onto pickup trucks in horrifying video from the incident.
The injured are being dragged to safety by additional church volunteers.
The incident was first reported as occurring in a Catholic church, but the Congolese army later claimed that it actually took place at a Pentecostal parish.
The church in Kasindi, a town that shares a border with Uganda to the northeast, was the site of an IED explosion, according to the army.
Locals claim that incidents of this nature are unusual in Kasindi.
According to the local newspaper Les Volcans News, a suspect came out of the trees, detonated his IED, and then retreated into the forest’s cover.
Although no terrorist organisation has officially claimed responsibility for the incident, the Allied DemocraticForces, an affiliate of the Islamic State, is known to operate in the region.
In 2019, an ISIS propaganda video featured ADF leader Musa Baluku swearing allegiance to the Islamic State on behalf of his group.
Between 2019 and 2020, the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) carried out a number of huge sting operations that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of ADF soldiers.
The ADF has been implicated in more than 800 deaths since then, notwithstanding the killings.
At least six people were killed when a suicide bomber struck a restaurant and pub on Christmas Day 2021 as customers were celebrating.
Soon after the bomb exploded, there was a lot of gunfire, and terrified people fled the centre of the town.
It was the first known instance of a suicide bomber killing people in eastern Congo.
Public gatherings were outlawed earlier that year after bombers in the eastern city of Beni detonated two IEDs: one at a Catholic church and another at a busy intersection.
Lt. Anthony Mwalushay, a spokesman for the Congolese army, indicated at the time that the attacks had ties to the ADF Islamist insurgents.
The recent increase in bloodshed supports concerns that Islamic fanaticism has spread in a territory previously troubled by insurgents for years.
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