From Fox News: The Pope, the State Department, the United Nations and a leading Christian group have all condemned a new major attack on Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which the U.N. says left at least 49 dead.
In the latest attack in a tragic long string of mass murders by Islamist terrorists in both Nigeria and the DRC, the U.N. said rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a sanctioned rebel group allied to Islamic State with roots in Uganda, burst into a church in the Eastern town of Komanda and set about hacking Christians who were worshipping inside with machetes and other knives. The congregation was attacked at 1 a.m. last Sunday morning, while they were on a night vigil, reportedly praying for peace.
The rebels also burnt nearby homes. Nine children are said to be among the dead. Several villagers have been abducted.
“The United States designated the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), also known as ISIS-DRC, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2021,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“We are concerned by reports of the recent attack on civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo and strongly condemn this cowardly act of violence against Christians in their place of worship.”
Pope Leo XIV said, “May the blood of these martyrs become a seed of peace, reconciliation, fraternity, and love for the Congolese people.”
A Vatican Cardinal also condemned the attacks, saying that the Pope “learned with dismay and deep sorrow of the attack.”
The U.N.’s Stablization Mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, expressed “deep outrage at these heinous acts of violence, which constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and infringements on human rights.”
“The killings are strategic,” Illia Djadi, a senior sub-Saharan researcher for Christian charity Open Doors, spoke out as well. “The ADF have a very clear aim: they want to turn a large part of DRC into an Islamic caliphate, like the horrific one instigated in Iraq and Syria in 2014 by Islamic State.”
Open Doors supports and advocates for Christians who are persecuted for their faith.
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