A Kenyan national aged 29 years has been arrested in connection to yesterday’s church bombing in the eastern town of Kasindi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that has so far killed at least sixteen people and injured over twenty others.
Initial reports indicated that ten people had died but the death toll has risen to 16 according to local authorities.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility of the attack.
Preliminary police investigations show a Kenyan man, 29-year-old Abdirizak Mukhtar Garad has been detained by the DR Congo security forces in connection to the attack.
Garad hails from Wajir County in the northern Kenya.
FARDC spokesperson Anthony Mualushay linked the attack to the Allied Defence Forces (ADF), a terror group with origins in Uganda but based in eastern DRC. Garad is believed to be a member of the ADF.
In 2021, the United States labelled the ADF a “foreign terrorist organisation” with links to the Islamic State group. The militia is active mainly in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province.
The same year, a joint Congolese-Ugandan military operation began targeting the ADF inside the DRC.
But the attacks have continued.
A report by independent experts for the UN Security Council, released in December, said the ADF had “continued its geographic expansion” despite the Congolese-Ugandan military operation, killing at least 370 civilians since April 2022.
It also warned that the ADF was changing tactics: opting for “more visible and more lethal” bomb attacks in urban areas, said the report.
The terror group is suspected to have placed the improvised explosive device (IED) at the Protestant church during its Sunday morning service.
Kasindi area located less than 100km from Beni town in eastern DRC which is under the watch a joint operation of Ugandan and DRC forces who are fighting the ADF.
The terror group is part of the more than 120 armed groups that have been fighting in eastern DRC leaving thousands dead and many more displaced.