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34 killed in attack on DR Congo church by Islamic State-backed rebels, civil leader says

34 killed in attack on DR Congo church by Islamic State-backed rebels, civil leader says

The death toll from an attack on a Catholic Church in DR Congo by Islamic State-backed rebels has risen to 34, according to a civil society leader.
'The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the
Catholic Church ,' Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, in the eastern Ituri province, told Associated Press.
At least five other people were killed in an earlier attack on the nearby village of Machongani, from where a search is continuing.
'They took several people into the bush; we do not know their destination or their number,' Lossa Dhekana, a civil society leader in Ituri, said.
Both attacks are believed to have been carried out by members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) armed with guns and machetes.
The military has confirmed at least 10 fatalities, while local media reports put the total death toll at more than 40.
Duranthabo said attackers stormed the church in Komanda town at around 1am. Several houses and shops were also burnt.
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