Islamic State-backed rebels attacked a Catholic church in eastern Congo on Sunday, killing at least 34 people, according to a local civil society leader. Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, in the Ituri province, told The Associated Press that the attackers stormed the church in Komanda town at around 1 a.m. Several houses and shops were also burnt. “The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the Catholic church,” Duranthabo said. Video footage from the scene shared online appeared to show burning structures and bodies on the floor of the church. Those who were able to identify some of the victims wailed while others stood in shock. At least five other people were killed in an earlier attack on the nearby village of Machongani. “They took several people into the bush; we do not know their destination or their number,” Lossa Dhekana, a civil society leader in Ituri, told the AP. Both attacks are believed to have been carried out by members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) armed with guns and machetes.

Full report : Islamic State-backed rebels attack a Catholic church in eastern Congo, killing at least 34.