Dozens of Catholics are murdered with machetes by Islamists in the Congo

Islamist terrorism continues to perpetrate massacres in Africa, where several countries are being affected by this wave of crimes.

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On Saturday evening, the Church of Blessed Anuarita in Komanda, in the Ituri province (Democratic Republic of the Congo), was attacked by Islamist terrorists from the so-called Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group made up of former Ugandan rebels who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019.

According to a statement released Sunday by the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the Islamists killed 43 people (19 women, 15 men and 9 children) and kidnapped several others. The attack took place while the victims, who were murdered with machetes, were in church.

During this attack, ADF Islamists destroyed the Church of Blessed Anuarita and set fire to houses and shops in the village, located in northeastern Congo. This is not the first time that Islamists have perpetrated a massacre like this in that country, where 95% of the population is Christian: there are more than 93 million followers of Christ in the Congo, more than in any European country. As you could already read in Contando Estrelas, on January 31, 2024, the ADF attacked several Christian communities, beheading 50 people, a terrorist attack that barely received any attention in the Western media.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the funerals for the Catholics murdered in Komanda make this clear. Due to the poverty of this community, the Ituri provincial government has had to provide coffins for burial.

Due to the lack of resources of these communities and the damage caused by the terrorists, many of the murdered people have been taken by motorcycle to the mass grave opened by a MONUSCO excavator, a grave located on the site of the church destroyed last Saturday. What was once a Catholic temple has now become a cemetery.

Vatican News reported yesterday that in a telegram signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Parolin to the president of the bishops of Congo, the Pope expressed his condolences for the Islamist attack on the Church of Blessed Anuarita de Homanda. "This tragedy," declares the Pope, "drives us even more to work for the integral human development of the tormented population of this region."

As has been the case with other massacres of Christians by Islamists in Africa, the attack on the Church of Beata Anuarita of Homanda has had very little impact in the Western media. In some cases, it has only made the news because of the Pope's message about the attack. Christians in several African countries are suffering crimes that have the characteristics of genocide in many cases, but this does not seem to arouse the interest of many media outlets, which systematically turn a blind eye to news of these massacres.

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Main photo: V. Jonhnson. Rest of the photos: TAZAMA RDC Infos / Patrique Nguie / Felly Luyindadio / Didier Mbongomingi.