MORE than 40 worshippers at a night vigil in a Roman Catholic church in the east of the Democratice Republic of the Congo were killed on Sunday by an insurgent group linked to Islamic State (IS).

The UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO has described the attack on defenceless civilians in a place of worship as “not only revolting but also contrary to all norms of human rights and international humanitarian law”.

It reported at least 43 people dead: 19 women, 15 men, and nine children. Fifteen people are reported to be injured, and others are still missing. A human-rights activist in the vicinity when the attack on the church, in Komanda city, was carried out, said that the rebels had “mainly attacked Christians who are spending the night in the church”. They had been killed with machetes or bullets.

Houses and shops surrounding the church are also reported to have been set on fire. The attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) has been condemned by a spokesman for the Congolese army, Lt Jules Ngongo, as intended to “take revenge on defenceless peaceful populations to spread terror”.

Vatican News reported on Monday that the bodies of the victims were still at the scene of the crime. “Volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the Catholic church,” a civic society leader said. The agency reported that the attackers had come from a stronghold 12km from the centre of Komanda. They had fled before security forces arrived.

The ADF is known for its violent tactics, and is reported to have escalated its violence against local populations. The group perpetrated an attack on a Protestant church in Lubero, North Kivu province, in February, when 100 worshippers were seized and 70 massacred. Many were beheaded (News, 28 February).

The group operates in the border area between Uganda and Congo, and has attacked the civilian population frequently, killing thousands. An attack earlier in July, in Irumu, killed at least 66: the UN report called it “a bloodbath”.

Anglican Primates have called the crisis in the DRC — where there has been continual violence for three decades — “a profound humanitarian tragedy, marked by violence, displacement, and suffering that affects millions of innocent lives” (News, 21 February).