The 70 decapitated bodies were discovered in a Protestant church in the town of Kasanga, in the Lubero Territory in the province of North Kivu toward the end of last week, according to Open Doors. No group has taken responsibility for the atrocity, but Open Doors, and several other organizations, have accused the AFD of the murders, citing "field sources." The victims are believed to have been taken hostage a few days before they were killed. Military administrator Alain Kiwewa for the Lubero Territory said he was investigating the incident, Pan-African news agency Agence de Presse Africaine reported. "Local sources suspect the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist group of Ugandan origin affiliated with the Islamic State, as well as local armed groups of being responsible for the massacre. These groups have maintained a climate of terror in the region for several months," the agency said.
Seventy bodies were found decapitated and tied up in a Protestant church in the town of Kasanga, in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR). According to reports, the victims had been kidnapped three days earlier in an attack perpetrated by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) military group, a group linked to the Islamic State. However, no organization has claimed responsibility for the massacre, so far. According to reports, in the early hours of Thursday, February 13, armed men arrived in the village of Mayba, in Lubero territory, demanding the inhabitants to leave their homes quietly. At that time, about 20 Christians were abducted. Later, when the community tried to organize a ransom, the attackers returned and captured another 50 people. In total, the 70 hostages were taken to the church, where they were killed.
Christian group Open Doors, which supports persecuted Christians around the world, said that terrorists from the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which has ties to the Islamic State, surrounded a village in Mayba in the territory of Lubero last Thursday, taking 20 men and women captive. The Islamic terrorists later returned and kidnapped 50 more Christians in the village and took them to a Protestant church in Kasanga, where they were brutally killed. Open Doors said that, according to “field sources,” families were still waiting to bury their dead loved ones as of Tuesday while many Christians fled the area for safety. “We don’t know what to do or how to pray; we’ve had enough of massacres,” said an elder of the CECA20 church in DRC. “May God’s will alone be done.”
