Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – “In our province alone, in July, more than 100 people, including women and children, were brutally murdered in attacks of unspeakable brutality.” This was revealed by the diocesan Caritas of Bunia (Ituri province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo), whose territory includes the church of Blessed Anuarite de Komanda, attacked by a commando unit of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on the night of Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, July 27 (see Fides, 28/7/2025).The 100 deaths recorded in July of this year alone represent, according to Caritas Bunia, “the flagrant failure of the state of siege” decreed on May 3, 2021, by President Félix Tshisekedi in Ituri and North Kivu, with the aim of “neutralizing the armed groups operating in the two provinces, restoring state authority through a temporary military government, protecting the civilian population, and stabilizing the region.””Four years and nearly 100 extensions later, the results are disappointing because new armed groups have emerged and are more active than ever,” Caritas states. Impunity reigns, and massacres continue without investigation or prosecution of the criminals. Even worse, there is compelling evidence revealing the complicity, passive or active, of the Congolese army, as in the recent Lopa massacre, where CODECO militiamen desecrated the Church of Saint John of Capistrano (see Fides, 23/7/2025). The desecration of the church “forced His Excellency Monsignor Dieudonné Uringi, Bishop of Bunia, to close the parish, whose reopening remains undefinite.”Meanwhile, more details have emerged about the attack on the village of Komanda. The attackers entered the village around 2:00 a.m. from their stronghold on Mount Hoyo. They attacked the parish church of Blessed Anuarite, killing about twenty people with machetes who were attending a prayer vigil. Other bodies were found in burned homes and businesses near the church, including that of a charred man found in a truck set on fire by the attackers. The total death toll is 43, with dozens injured.According to Caritas, the attack on the village of Komanda has sown widespread panic, causing a mass exodus of its population to Bunia, Beni, and Kisangani. It has also led to the suspension of economic and religious activities. All of this has exacerbated the existing humanitarian crisis due to the influx of newly displaced people. Caritas Bunia denounces “the unacceptable passivity of the security forces and MONUSCO (UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), which, despite being stationed less than 3 kilometers from the crime scene, failed to intervene to protect civilians.”In a statement sent to Fides, Caritas Bunia highlights the deteriorating security situation in Ituri: “With the emergence of a new rebel movement (Convention for Popular Revolution), recently founded by Thomas Lubanga and his accomplices in Uganda, and the unnatural alliances between the regular army (FARDC) and the criminal militias it was supposed to fight, Ituri is sinking into unprecedented chaos. The population, left to itself, no longer knows who to trust.”To prevent further massacres and improve security in the area, Caritas calls for the immediate lifting of the state of siege, describing it as “an ineffective measure rejected by the population”; the replacement of all FARDC and police personnel deployed in Komanda during the July 27 massacre, as well as in Lopa during the massacres and destruction of July 21, 2025; and the urgent review of civil protection strategies to prevent further tragedies. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 31/7/2025)
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