Islamist terror attack leaves 20 Congolese Christians dead, including evangelist

Originally published in Persecution.Org

Twenty Congolese Christians were killed and several others kidnapped after the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) struck the village of Kainama, Beni territory in Nord Kivu on the night of October 4.

The bishop of the Beni Anglican Diocese confirmed the attack by the Islamist rebel group, terming it “a devastating occurrence that continues to bleed off hope that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been praying for.”

Among the 20 people beheaded was Sobu Mundeke, an evangelist with the Anglican Church of Congo, who had travelled to Kainama to look for food for his displaced family in Beni. One of the first responders to the attack in the early morning of October 5 was Venerable Jeanpierre, the Archdeacon of Kainama, who reported to ICC,

“It pains me to inform you that we have lost 20 Christians of the Banande-Kainama camp and our evangelist, Sobu Mundeke, is one of them. Their bodies are lying all over, and houses have been burnt down by the ADF rebels. Sobu arrived last week from Beni in search of food for his family; little did he know that he was coming to be killed. We have also confirmed that other people are missing, and we know they have been taken away by the Muslim fighters.”

Sobu and his family were displaced from the same area on May 28 after the ADF militia group raided the Christian village of Vido, killing 16 people and torching 10 houses. They went to live in Beni town as internally-displaced people, where the ICC team met him in June. He was depending on well-wishers for his family’s upkeep, and so he thought that going to the rich farming area of Kainama and coming back with food would save his 13-member family. This time, he did not make it.

The ADF Islamist militant group has continued to stage attacks on Christians in Eastern DR Congo, ceaselessly leaving behind a trail of unfathomable losses from killing innocent Congolese believers to destroying shelters, food stores, hospitals, and vehicles. Their aim is to impose Islamic rule on the Christians, and this they will do by violating the freedom of worship of believers in order to cause fear and recruit more people into Islam. After Sobu survived the first attack, he disclosed,

“I heard them. They were shouting in Arabic and Swahili, saying that the kafirs [nonbelievers] should be killed, all of them, and make Congo an Islamic state. Shoot all of them. Kill all of them, and burn their houses, these notorious Christians.” 

The bishop of Beni has recounted a total of 50 deaths to the atrocities of the ADF terrorists since the beginning of October.

“We are losing believers almost every night savagely slaughtered or shot dead by the Muslim rebels. We do not get to know all the cases, but we can verify that since the beginning of this month, 50 have been killed, and tens taken away as hostages to serve the rebels in their camps inside the forests.”

He continued: “In the Ruwenzori Sector, on the night of October 1, they killed 11 people with several cases of missing people. Again on the night of October 2, 19 people were brutally killed, and others went missing in Mambume, Mutuei, and Mangazi in the locality of Mamove, Oicha. Then on Tuesday night, October 4^th, they massacred 20 people in Kainama, and several others are reported missing until now.”

The recent attacks have instigated a massive exodus of the displaced local population towards the supposedly secure towns of Eringeti, Oicha, Beni, and Kasindi, leading to an influx of women, children, and men requiring huge humanitarian aid to avert their already deplorable situation.

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