By Aggrey Baba In the town of Komanda, in northeastern DR Congo, survivors of the church massacre are still trying to come to terms with the horror they lived through.
The attack happened late on Saturday night at the Blessed Anuarite Catholic parish, where many people, including women and children, had gathered for prayers.
Suddenly, gunmen believed to be members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) entered the church, heavily armed, tied up worshippers and killed them one by one.
Some were shot, while others were hacked with pangas.
The attack left at least 43 people dead, including nine children. It was one of the deadliest ADF attacks in recent months. One of the survivors, a 21-year-old man named Pierre Abendi, had come to pray earlier in the evening and fell asleep, waking up to the sound of gunfire.
At first, he says he thought it was security forces nearby, but when he heard the gunmen speaking a foreign language, he knew it was the ADF. He quickly hid behind a mattress, pressed against the wall, and stayed still, trying not to breathe loudly, and waited silently, fearing that he would be the next victim.
Elsewhere, another man and his brother were in their small shop near the church when they heard gunshots and people crying for help. Minutes later, armed attackers came knocking on their door and threatened to burn them inside if they didn’t open up. The men were reportedly taken out into the bush and feared they would be killed. But they managed to escape when another armed group appeared and interrupted the attack.
Many others were not as lucky. People who were captured inside the church were tied up and killed in front of others, while Some young people were kidnapped and taken away.
A local priest later confirmed that several people were badly injured, and many families were left in pieces.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, said the killings were a serious crime against innocent people and a clear violation of human rights. But for the people of DRC, official statements are not enough. They want to know why their community was left unprotected, even though soldiers and peacekeepers are supposed to be operating in the area.
On Monday, the victims were buried in a mass grave after a funeral service. Soldiers stood by, but they had arrived too late to stop the killings. Local residents expressed deep anger and sadness, asking how such an attack could happen in a place of worship and why no help came in time.
Survivors are now left with emotional wounds, others are too scared to return to the church, while some can’t speak about what they saw.
For the people of Komanda, the pain is not only about those who died, but the feeling that they were abandoned, and that even in prayer, they were not safe.
