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FIRST ON FOX – Dramatic testimony has been revealed exclusively to Fox News Digital, giving new details from the scene of the horrific massacre Sunday by Jihadists allied to the Islamic State of at least 49 Christians worshiping in a church in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Nine of those who were decapitated were children. Several other children, the number isn’t clear, were abducted. The attackers were members of the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a sanctioned rebel group with roots in Uganda.
With the assistance of Open Doors UK, Fox News Digital reached a local church partner of the organization in the DRC, who rushed to witness the scene of the attack, in the village of Komanda, just hours after it took place. Open Doors is a global Christian charity which supports and speaks up for Christians persecuted for their faith.
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From survivors in the village, including a shop owner who managed to be an eyewitness and remarkably escaped detection by the attackers even though his shop was burnt down, and the reported position of the bodies of those hacked to death, the church worker pieced together an account of how the attack happened.
Judith, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told Fox News Digital it was clear something was wrong even before she reached the village. “On our way we could see people already leaving, carrying their bags, heading for more secure areas.
“In Komanda there were no activities, and people were standing in groups around the shops and the places that had been burnt. And people were sad. There was sadness everywhere.”
Fox News Digital has learned worshipers had come from surrounding villages to celebrate the church’s Silver Jubilee in prayer and to pray for “the security situation” – to pray for peace.
“Attackers came in” she said, “and they beheaded Christians in the church.” The jihadis “killed those they met in the church hall. Those who tried to flee, they caught them and killed them in the compound. And then some others who managed to run towards the road, those also were caught and killed. All of them were killed with machetes. Most of those Christians who were killed, were Catholics.”
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Another shopkeeper whose business was also burned down told Judith “we don’t even understand why all this is happening.”
The U.N.’s MONUSCO (the Stabilization Mission in the DRC) shipped in earth-digging “Caterpillars” to dig a huge crater in the village, a mass grave into which simple boxes which formed coffins were placed for the dead. Some of those buried that day had come to Komanda for safety after already being attacked in other areas before.
At Monday’s funeral, Judith said, “People were crying, weeping, some crying for their children who had been kidnapped. One woman cried for the man she was shortly due to marry, now lying dead. Others were also crying that this is the person that was taking care of me. Now the person is no more.
“There was sadness upon sadness everywhere. Everything they had is lost, they have nothing now.”
Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, on Monday condemned the attack on X, posting “This deadly escalation in their targeting of Christians makes the peace process, championed by @POTUS and @SecRubio even more urgent. We must focus all energies on eradicating these ISIS terrorists and forging a new regional economic path.”
“This is a crisis of biblical proportions”, Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK and Ireland, told Fox News Digital, adding “This is a silent slaughter happening, which nobody is discussing. It’s like the slaughter of the innocents in the Bible, really. I mean, women and children are being targeted along with men. Nobody is reporting on it. Nobody even seems to be particularly concerned about it.”
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Blythe said that the Islamists are attempting to create a caliphate with its strict Islamic laws in a country which is 80-95% Christian.
“Christians are not even sleeping in their houses at night. They would rather sleep in the jungle at risk of wild animals than be sitting ducks in their houses when the extremists attack. In this part of Sub-Saharan Africa, we think that more than 16 million Christians have been displaced as a result of the violence. The church is on the run. Christians are snatching up their children and running for their lives, often at night.”
“This is not an isolated event,” Jo Newhouse, a Sub-Sahara specialist for Open Doors, told Fox News Digital. The organization reports that more than 80 local villagers, largely Christians, have been killed in other attacks in just this month of July alone. “We need the U.S. to pay attention about what is happening and use your influence for the church here. Do not be blind to what is happening here. Pay attention.”
Judith heard about President Donald Trump’s brokered peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda. However, it hasn’t so far made any difference to the situation where she is, in the eastern part of the country. “We have seen many peace accords which have not given any result,” she said. “The peace accord that is needed is the one with the ADF. For now, they continue attacks on the people.”
Villagers saw the Islamist attackers withdraw to a point a few miles away. A local source says no arrests have been made. Another attack can come at any time.
“If the Trump administration can put pressure on governments like Uganda and Rwanda to withdraw their forces here,” Judith said “Congo would be fine”.
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