16 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The terrorist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA) has claimed responsibility for the attack carried out on Sunday against an evangelical church in Kasindi, in the state of North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has resulted in at least 17 deaths and about twenty wounded.
“Islamic State claims its militants planted and detonated explosive devices, which has left dozens of Christians dead and injured,” said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, a body specializing in monitoring terrorist groups.
Thus, he explained that the terrorist group has also threatened to carry out more attacks in the future. However, the main suspect in the attack has already been arrested and is being questioned by the authorities.
The Congolese president, Felix Tshisekedi, has regretted what happened and has expressed his “sadness” for this “heinous crime.” “I send my deepest condolences to the families of the victims. I assure that those responsible will be persecuted, arrested and severely punished,” he said in a statement picked up by the Radio Okapi station.
For its part, the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has promised to support the health services to “treat the wounded from the bomb attack” in the city of Beni and has qualified that it has already sent the area a medicalized ambulance.
The DRC government has blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, a Ugandan group created in the 1990s that was especially active in the eastern DRC and accused of the killing of hundreds of civilians in this area of the DRC. country.
The group went through a split in 2019 after United Nations and US sanctioned Musa Baluku swore allegiance to ISCA, under whose banner it has operated ever since. The increase in their attacks on Ugandan soil and the claim of an attack in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, led both countries to launch joint operations in eastern DRC.
