By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KINSHASA, DRC (Worthy News) - Christians faced major challenges in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Friday after at least eight people died and thirty were taken hostage in Islamist attacks on a Pentecostal church and other targets.
Several villages in and around the Beni area were attacked since Tuesday, January 30, by armed men who executed civilians with bladed weapons, Christians said.
The attacks were attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (AFD), a group affiliated with the so-called Islamic State.
Five of these were in prayer in a church belonging to the Branhamist Pentecostal community.
“Eight bodies of civilians killed by ADF rebels have been deposited at the morgue" of the Oicha hospital, including "five Branhmanist Christians killed during worship," said Nicolas Kikuku, the mayor of Benin’s Oicha commune.
“The enemies executed them," stressed the mayor in comments published by the Vatican News service. He added that several remains remained missing.
The attacks are no isolated incidents, according to rights groups. “Christians who live in the eastern part of the DRC are at incredible risk. The region is home to more than 100 armed groups, some of whom specifically target followers of Jesus,” said Open Doors, an advocacy group working in the area.
CHRISTIANS VULNERABLE
“This leaves Christians and churches in this part of the country vulnerable to attacks, including murder, abduction, and sexual violence.”
It also noticed that Church leaders who speak out against the violence “are at risk of being targetted, making it difficult to raise their voices against the atrocities. The violence has led to a massive displacement crisis in the DRC, and many believers are among the displaced” in the nation of over 108 million people.
Since the late-2000s, there has been continuing fighting in the east where a United Nations force is struggling to keep the peace, observers say.
The country’s President, Félix Tshisekedi won a second term in the December 2023 elections, but several opposition candidates raised doubt about the fairness of the vote.
About two-thirds of polling stations opened late, while 30 percent of voting machines did not work on the first day of the vote, according to vote observers.
Tshisekedi, who comes from a political dynasty, became president in January 2019 after protracted political wrangling in the wake of a controversial election in December 2018.
He succeeded Joseph Kabila, who had become president when his own father, Laurent, was assassinated in 2001.