Two Women “seriously injured” in Catholic Parish Bomb Explosion Attack in DR Congo

“The homemade bomb was placed where the choir set up their instruments, the first row after the altar,” Fr. Masingo said, adding, “the musical instruments and some benches were destroyed by the explosion.”

Following the incident, the member of the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption (AA – Assumptionists) revealed, “We have set up a security commission within the Parish. We must be vigilant.”

“The explosive went off before people had gathered for the ceremony,” the Vicar General of the Diocese of Butemb-Beni who arrived in the Parish later for the Sacrament of Confirmation has been quoted as saying.

Making reference to those who set up the explosive inside the church, Msgr. Laurent Sondirya says in the June 27 report, “They were targeting a large crowd because the ceremony would bring together children, their parents and the faithful.”

The Catholic Parish is in the city of Beni, North Kivu in north eastern DRC, which has been under attacks from Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an ISIS affiliated rebel group from neighboring Uganda headed by a Muslim who abandoned his Christian faith.

Last month, the Local Ordinary of Butembo-Beni Diocese, Bishop Melchisedec Sikuli Paluku, denounced terror attacks and far-reaching human rights violations that seem to target Christians in the East of the country, a region covered by his episcopal see.

In a separate report published by ACN, Bishop Paluku said that the number of terror attacks seemed “particularly high in the Northern part of our Diocese. Armed groups are destroying schools and hospitals.” 

“They are even killing the sick as they lie in their hospital beds. Not a day goes by without people being killed,” Bishop Paluku lamented in the ACN report shared with ACI Africa May 20. 

Bishop Paluku appealed for support for victims of these attacks saying, “We need centers where people can go for therapy. Many people are traumatized.”

Earlier, in April, Catholic Bishops in the Central African nation warned of a threat of Islamism in the country amid increased violence in the Eastern part of the country.

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In a report to the Pontifical charity organization, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, the Bishops made an appeal to the Félix Tshisekedi-led government to stop the militias who they described as religious “predators.”

The Bishops informed ACN that prisoners who escaped the Islamist militia Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) confirmed “that they had been compelled to convert to Islam.”

“We cannot hope for the development of this country as long as the East remains under the control of predators,” said the Bishops in their report that ACN leadership shared with ACI Africa April 14.