On Sunday morning, 27 July 2025, extremist fighters attacked Komanda, killing at least 21 believers in the Catholic church and other residents in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) town.
According to news reports the extremist group, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), attacked the Catholic church around 1 a.m. during a prayer vigil. Security forces received the news at around 2 a.m., but when they arrived, the extremist fighters had already left the area.
UN sponsored, Radio Okapi, reports that several other bodies were discovered in burned-out houses and businesses not far from the church. It’s unclear whether they were Christians or not.
Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, told AP yesterday: “More than 21 people were shot dead inside and outside [the church], and we have recorded at least three charred bodies and several houses burned. But the search is continuing.
“The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the Catholic church.”
Father Aime Lokana Dhego, a local priest, told the AFP news agency (via BBC) that 31 believers were killed: “We have at least 31 dead members of the Eucharistic Crusade movement, with six seriously injured. Some young people were kidnapped; we have no news of them.”
Shops and businesses close to the church were looted and set on fire.
AP also reports that at least five others were killed in Machongani, a nearby village, in an earlier attack. While various news agencies are reporting different numbers of people killed, the number is set to increase in the next few days.
Open Doors’ Statement
“Open Doors strongly condemns the attack on Christians peacefully participating in a church program and civilians in the town of Komanda. We call on government at all levels to keep civilians safe and bring to justice to all who are found to be involved in these acts of brutality,” says Jo Newhouse*, Open Doors’ spokesperson for the work in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Thousands of people have already been affected by the violence in eastern DRC and are living in constant flux–bereaved and severely traumatised. The immediate and long-term human cost of the violence must not be allowed to continue in this manner. All human beings have the right to protection no matter their faith, ethnicity, or gender.
“We further call on the international Christian community to remain in prayer over the ongoing insecurity in eastern DRC. Pray for an end to the Islamic radical violence as government at all levels diligently, impartially, and transparently address the violence and its effects. Pray for provision for the Church in eastern DRC as she seeks to bring physical and spiritual assistance to the affected.”
Pray for DRC:
- Pray God comforts those who have lost loved ones and livelihoods. “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
- Pray for the strengthening of the faith of Christians living in areas threatened by the ADF.
- Pray for the insecurity in the east of the DRC, that the Lord’s intervention will stop the attacks and calm the situation.
- Let us pray for the ADF, that the Lord will bring them to repentance and into relationship with Him. If they harden their hearts towards God, pray He confuses their plans.
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