{"id":60372,"date":"2025-07-29T19:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=60372"},"modified":"2026-07-29T01:55:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:55:48","slug":"dozens-of-catholics-are-murdered-with-machetes-by-islamists-in-the-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/07\/29\/dozens-of-catholics-are-murdered-with-machetes-by-islamists-in-the-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of Catholics are murdered with machetes by Islamists in the Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Islamist terrorism continues to perpetrate massacres in Africa, where several countries are being affected by this wave of crimes.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/02\/05\/silence-in-the-media-about-christians-beheaded-by-islamists-in-the-congo\/\">Silence in the media about Christians beheaded by Islamists in the Congo<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/04\/15\/islamists-murdered-more-than-100-christians-in-nigeria-in-the-first-half-of-april\/\">Islamists murdered more than 100 Christians in Nigeria in the first half of April<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>On Saturday evening, <strong>the Church of Blessed Anuarita in Komanda<\/strong>, in the Ituri province (Democratic Republic of the Congo), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famillechretienne.fr\/45372\/article\/rdc-au-moins-43-fideles-tues-dans-lattaque-dune-eglise-catholique-par-des\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was attacked by Islamist terrorists from the so-called Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)<\/a>, a group made up of former Ugandan rebels who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687112166_dbf9ec0be3_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687112166_5882330608_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MONUSCO\/status\/1949580160807915900\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a statement<\/a> released Sunday by the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), <strong>the Islamists killed 43 people (19 women, 15 men and 9 children)<\/strong> and kidnapped several others. The attack took place while the victims, who <strong>were murdered with machetes<\/strong>, were in church.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687448455_db418b83c8_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687448455_921324ae71_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>During this attack, <strong>ADF Islamists destroyed the Church of Blessed Anuarita and set fire to houses and shops in the village<\/strong>, located in northeastern Congo. This is not the first time that Islamists have perpetrated a massacre like this in that country, where <strong>95% of the population is Christian: there are more than 93 million followers of Christ in the Congo<\/strong>, more than in any European country. As you could already read in Contando Estrelas, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/02\/05\/silence-in-the-media-about-christians-beheaded-by-islamists-in-the-congo\/\">on January 31, 2024, the ADF attacked several Christian communities, beheading 50 people<\/a>, a terrorist attack that barely received any attention in the Western media.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687353024_63cbb6b6bf_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687353024_d2b841245b_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687448375_0fb83510a2_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687448375_0fb83510a2_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Due to the lack of resources of these communities and the damage caused by the terrorists, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FellyLuyindadio\/status\/1949777007807483926\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">many of the murdered people have been taken by motorcycle<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TazamaRDC_Infos\/status\/1949710154028490822\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the mass grave opened by a MONUSCO excavator<\/a>, <strong>a grave located on the site of the church destroyed last Saturday<\/strong>. What was once a Catholic temple has now become a cemetery.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687336183_c8c1dbfb7f_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687336183_c8c1dbfb7f_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Vatican News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/en\/pope\/news\/2025-07\/rd-cong-church-massacre-pope-telegram-martyrs.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported yesterday<\/a> that in a telegram signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Parolin to the president of the bishops of Congo, <strong>the Pope expressed his condolences for the Islamist attack on the Church of Blessed Anuarita de Homanda<\/strong>. <em>\"This tragedy,\"<\/em> declares the Pope, <em>\"drives us even more to work for the integral human development of the tormented population of this region.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687448365_934e633da9_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687448365_934e633da9_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As has been the case with other massacres of Christians by Islamists in Africa, <strong>the attack on the Church of Beata Anuarita of Homanda has had very little impact in the Western media<\/strong>. In some cases, it has only made the news because of the Pope's message about the attack. <strong>Christians in several African countries are suffering crimes that have the characteristics of genocide in many cases<\/strong>, but this does not seem to arouse the interest of many media outlets, which systematically turn a blind eye to news of these massacres.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687448385_0511583d42_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54687448385_ca874b9785_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main photo: V. Jonhnson. Rest of the photos: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TazamaRDC_Infos\/status\/1949710154028490822\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TAZAMA RDC Infos<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nguie_patrique\/status\/1950163628038000830\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patrique Nguie<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FellyLuyindadio\/status\/1949777007807483926\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Felly Luyindadio<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DidierMBONGO76\/status\/1949598856636698647\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Didier Mbongomingi<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islamist terrorism continues to perpetrate massacres in Africa, where several countries are being affected by this wave of crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,10712],"tags":[8161,21104,10424,10713,18268,8179,794,10576],"class_list":["post-60372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-religion-eng","tag-africa","tag-allied-democratic-forces-adf","tag-catholic-church","tag-christianism","tag-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","tag-isis","tag-islam","tag-jihadism"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-11 20:39:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}