A bomb killed at least 10 people and wounded 39 others after ripping through a church in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo on Sunday, in an attack blamed on suspected Islamists.
Details of the attack are hazy, but Congolese military spokesman Antony Mualushayi said the “terrorist act” happened in a Pentecostal church in North Kivu province’s Kasindi, a town on the border with Uganda.
A Kenyan was arrested following the bomb blast, he added, although the perpetrator of the attack in the turbulent region remains unclear.
The explosion killed at least 10 people and wounded 39, Mualushayi said, revising up an initial death toll of five. Both tolls were provisional, he said.
Joel Kitausa, a local civil-society figure, also put the death toll at 10.
Kitausa said 58 people were wounded.
AFP was unable to independently confirm the numbers of casualties.
The DRC’s communications ministry said on social media that the attack was apparently carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) — which the Islamic State group claims as its affiliate in central Africa.
The ADF is one of the deadliest of the over 120 armed groups in eastern DRC, many of which are the legacy of regional wars that flared at the turn of the 21st century.
It has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda. ADF operatives have also planted bombs in towns in North Kivu in the past.
Mualushayi said investigations were ongoing into Sunday’s church bombing.
