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At least 14 people were killed in a weekend church bombing in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, an army spokesman said on Monday, up from an earlier death toll of 10.
A bomb destroyed an evangelical church in Kasindi, a town in North Kivu province on the border with Uganda, on Sunday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government says the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which the Islamic State group claims to be a non-affiliate, is the clear culprit.
Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack, according to expert monitoring group Site Intelligence.
Congolese military spokesman Antony Mulushayi told reporters Monday that 14 people were killed and 63 wounded, an increase from earlier reports of 10 dead and 39 wounded.
Uganda said late Sunday that 16 people had been killed and 20 wounded in a military operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Among the wounded was a suspected suicide bomber who had been transferred to the nearby town of Beni for medical treatment, Mulushayi said.
“We’re praying to God that he’s alive so he can give us the information we’re looking for,” he said.
A Kenyan national was arrested on Monday following the attack.
Several more people were arrested and the investigation is still in its preliminary stages, Mulushayi said.
“Based on the information we have, there are still two bombs in the city and we are doing our best to detect them,” he said.
The ADF is one of the deadliest of more than 120 armed groups in eastern DRC, many of which are the product of regional wars that erupted in the sprawling, impoverished country at the turn of the century.
It has been accused of massacring thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bombings in Uganda. ADF operatives have also planted bombs in North Kivu towns in the past.
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