Forty-seven people are reported to have been killed in DR Congo’s Ituri Province on Sunday, July 27 in an attack perpetrated by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF-NALU), an Islamic State-linked terrorist armed group that operates in the neighbouring country. The massacre took place at a Catholic church in Komanda, Irumu territory, Ituri Province. The Congolese government forces (FARDC) confirmed the news, saying the attack claimed “over 40” lives. The killings were mainly carried out using machetes, the FARDC added. ALSO READ: ADF rebels kill 15 in eastern DR Congo attacks The Congo River Alliance (AFC/M23), in a statement via X reacted to the killings, saying “it condemns in the strongest terms” the murder of its compatriots. It blamed the DR Congo government for failure to protect the civilians, noting that such compels the M23 to “establish state authority throughout the entire territory.” “The blatant incompetence of the Kinshasa regime in protecting civilian populations compels the AFC/M23 to establish state authority throughout the entire territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo,” read a statement shared by M23’s spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka on X. The ADF is a Ugandan Islamist rebel group based in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government and the United States. ALSO READ: DR Congo: at least 20 dead in suspected ADF attack Since the late 1990s, the ADF has operated in the Congo's North Kivu province near the border with Uganda. It has been carrying out attacks at various times against civilians both on Ugandan and Congolese soil. Among some of its most recent attacks, in mid-April, between 10 and 15 civilians were killed in DR Congo’s Beni region, while in October last year, at least 20 civilians were killed in the same area, again attributed to the ADF.
