At least 34 killed in attack on east Congo church by Islamic State-backed rebels, civil leader says
"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 Ituri province, told The Associated Press.
At least five other people were killed in an earlier attack on the nearby village of Machongani, from where a search is ongoing.
'They took several people into the bush; we do not know their destination or their number,' Lossa Dhekana, a civil society leader in Ituri, told the AP
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 1 a.m. Several houses and shops were also burnt.
Lt. Jules Ngongo, a Congolese army spokesperson in Ituri province, confirmed 10 killed in the church attack.
Video footage from the scene shared online appeared to show burning structures and bodies on the floor of the church. Those who were able to identify some of the victims wailed while others stood in shock.
A U.N.-backed radio station said 43 people were killed, citing security sources. It said the attackers came from a stronghold around 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the center of Komanda and fled before security forces could arrive.
Duranthabo condemned the attack 'in a town where all the security officials are present.' He added: 'We demand military intervention as soon as possible, since we are told the enemy is still near our town.'
Eastern Congo has suffered deadly attacks in recent years by armed groups, including the ADF and Rwanda-backed rebels. The ADF, which has ties to the Islamic State, operates in the borderland between Uganda and Congo and often targets civilians. The group killed dozens of people in Ituri earlier this month in what a United Nations spokesperson described as a bloodbath.
The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following alleged discontent with President Yoweri Museveni.
In 2002, following military assaults by Ugandan forces, the group moved its activities to neighboring Congo and has since been responsible for the killings of thousands of civilians. In 2019, it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), which has long struggled against the rebel group, has been facing attacks since the renewed hostilities between the Rwanda-backed M23.
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Daily Mail
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RAW VID - 3488293 A family who were subjected to a campaign of abuse by their neighbour before she launched a vicious spade attack are living in fear that she could return to 'finish the job she intended' after she was spared jail. Mother-of-three Catherine 'Cat' Lloyd, 44, pounced from behind her gate and smashed her victim over the top of the head in a narrow alleyway between their homes in a late-night attack his family say he was lucky to come out of alive. In new CCTV from the night obtained by the Daily Mail, she then smashes him over the head with a wooden bat with the help of her ex-boyfriend whom she had called over to join in. The horrifying double attack, caught on CCTV, followed a three-year campaign of abuse against the victim's grandparents-in-law in which she made 1am death threats, branded them 'paedophiles' and 'murderers' online and even threw bricks at them. 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The terrified pensioners, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have now installed an iron gate in the passageway, explaining: 'We are having to safeguard ourselves from the possibility of an absolute nutjob coming back to finish the job that she intended.' Half an hour after the spade attack, Lloyd and her ex-partner, Aaron Hockey, attacked the victim again - this time with a wooden bat. Hockey first attacked the victim's mother and then turned on him when he came outside We can reveal today the 'dispute' stemmed from a random letter that Lloyd - who had been completely fine with them when she first moved in back in 2019 - put through their letterbox on May 27, 2020. In the strongly worded letter, Lloyd claimed her neighbours had left 'broken roof tiles' and 'tree trimmings' in her garden and threatened to report them to the police. 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We had to get cameras put in. She was shouting it over the fence. For nearly two years I didn't dare go out our back gate because she'd be there all the time waiting for me. 'We had the police out so many times and we told them she's like a ticking time bomb. You just don't know when she's going to kick off.' In social media posts seen by Daily Mail, Lloyd posted their faces and names online, calling them 'sex pests, child abusers and creepy ass stalkers'. When their grandson-in-law stuck up for them one day, Lloyd turned and 'suddenly hated him' as well, shouting abuse at him and issuing death threats. They explained: 'If she mouthed off, he would give her as much as back. That's what she didn't like. Our policy was to ignore her and it made it worse. His policy was you bite me, I'll bite you back. That made her worse too, you couldn't win.' In one terrifying moment in 2021, Lloyd allegedly pushed her pensioner neighbour off her bike, leaving her with bruises all over her arm. She was arrested but there was 'insufficient evidence' for her to be charged. In another, on July 17 2022, she threw bricks into the garden of the neighbours' granddaughter and husband while they were all having a barbeque. The Daily Mail has obtained a dossier of CCTV and photos which shows Lloyd's 'calculated' plot to attack the family. On April 18, 2023, a camera picked her up making a chilling threat, shouting: 'Do you have a preference? I've got a spade, I've got garden shears or I've got a rake.' Just three weeks later, on May 14, she stormed out her back gate at around 9.30pm and struck her victim over the head with a spade. The victim's grandmother-in-law, who saw the horror unfold before her eyes, said: 'He was bleeding a lot, it was so vicious.' Her partner added: 'She sprung up from behind the gate, she'd been waiting there with a spade in hand waiting for him to come back round. Then she's gone "there he is" and lunged at him with a spade. If that isn't with intent, what is? 'She hit him with the flat of the spade. If she'd hit him with the edge, he wouldn't be here. The lad would not be here now, guaranteed.' Police have only released footage of the spade attack, but the Mail can reveal how the violence did not stop there. Moments later, Lloyd rang up her ex-partner, the father of her children, who quickly arrived at the scene armed with a wooden baton. CCTV shows Aaron Hockey manhandling the victim's mother while he was inside recovering from his head wound. When he heard the commotion, he came outside and was smashed around the head by Hockey before Lloyd joined in. Hockey was handed a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years, for possession of an offensive weapon, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray. 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'It's such a deflation that we've waited all this time, it's finally gone to court, we had all the evidence and we just think where's the justice in that? 'Until the bailiffs come round, she's still got the keys to the place. What's to stop her coming round? 'She's not even in prison anymore. There's a restraining order but that's not stopped her before. There's physically nothing to stop her running back again.' Lloyd's neighbour on the other side was more sympathetic to the situation, telling the Daily Mail: 'I feel sorry for her. She needs help. She was always very friendly and helpful. She would offer to do my shopping and made me a Christmas dinner. 'She's got lovely twins. 'We were good friends for quite a while but then she cut herself off. I think mental problems started getting to her. 'She was friendly, helpful, bright, she could be funny.' Lloyd was jailed for ten months on July 31 at Peterborough Crown Court after admitting grievous bodily harm without intent. But she was released from custody due to time spent on remand. DCI Lloyd Davis said: 'Catherine Lloyd's behaviour in this case was completely unacceptable. 'Irrespective of any ongoing dispute, violence like this is not the answer. I'm pleased the victim can now move on.'
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