Open Doors, a watchdog group that reports on anti-Christian persecution, said on Thursday that jihadis slaughtered over a hundred Christians in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this week, including at least 70 who were murdered at a funeral service.
Christians gathered for the funeral of a church member in the village of Ntoyo were ambushed by a swarm of Islamist militants on Monday night. Some of the attackers had guns, but they did a great deal of their bloody work with machetes.
The attackers also kidnapped a least a hundred villagers, and burned 16 buildings to the ground.
“It’s horrible what I saw,” parish priest Abbe Paluku Nzalamingi said. “Women on mattresses in the living room … others in the corridor, still, others outside in the plot. Some bodies are on the road, in plots close to the centre of Ntoyo. They killed almost all the people gathered at the place of mourning.”
On Tuesday, the marauders struck again in the Christian farming community of Potodu. The residents largely live in tents while they tend their fields, so they had little cover or defense against the attack.
Open Doors said the death toll from the second attack was over 30 so far, with many people still unaccounted for, so the two-day casualty count is over 100. An untold number of other residents have been displaced by the attacks, and must now seek refuge elsewhere.
“It is a night of sadness and desolation for Christians,” Pastor Paluku said.
“May God come to our rescue because we are fed up with these killings in the Beni territory,” he added. Beni is the territory where the villages are located.
“The massacres are weakening the faith of Christians. Last month it was massacre after massacre, and in September, Lord, please come to our aid,” said Rev. Alili, head of a nearby church that has taken in some of the refugees from Ntoyo.
“Please, brothers and sisters, let us unite in prayer to counter the enemy. God says if He does not watch over the house, those who watch, watch in vain. Let us pray together for the Christians of the east of the DRC,” Rev. Alili said.
Fox News reported on Friday that it has seen, but not published, horrific video of the aftermath of the attack.
“It is too distressing to share, showing bodies of small children and women lying on the ground. The pitiful screaming of surviving family members can be heard. Another image is said to show that some of the victims had their hands tied behind their backs,” Fox News said.
The attacks on Monday and Tuesday were claimed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group linked to ISIS that also bills itself as the Islamic State Central Africa Province. The same group has committed numerous recent attacks on Christians in the Congo.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has condemned the ADF for “serious violations of international law,” including the recruitment of child soldiers and the use of rape as a weapon.
Speaking anonymously due to fears for her safety, an African working with Open Doors told Fox News that the ADF committed ten documented attacks on Congolese Christians last month.
“But there have been a lot more which go unreported,” she added. “And sometimes two or three villages are attacked at the same time.”
“The people, they say we are tired, when will this come to an end? Because it’s every day you hear someone has been killed,” she said. “You can find a family where two or three family members have been killed, or a child whose both parents have been killed. So it’s pain, it’s agony.”
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