A bomb exploded inside a Catholic Church in the city of Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Reports say that 2 people were injured as a result of the accident which occurred on Sunday.
The police chief in Beni, Narcisse Muteba Kashale told AFP that the explosion occurred about an hour before a children’s confirmation ceremony began.
Kashale disclosed that the explosion happened at 6:00am and experts from the UN’s mission to DR Congo told “us it is a home-made bomb, a bomb that was set up for an ambush.
the Vicar-General in charge of Beni said 2 people were injured in the blast which went off before crowds gathered to attend a Confirmation ceremony.
Speaking with the AFP, the Vicar said that, “They were targeting a large crowd because the ceremony would bring together children, their parents and the faithful…mass would not be postponed.
An AFP reported that blood was seen at the entrance to the church flooring the explosion while splinters of glass were scattered inside. He added that the sound equipment was destroyed.
This is the first time a building belonging to the Catholic Church, the city’s largest religion has been directly targeted in the Beni territory where the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia is accused of killing 6,000 people since 2013 according the Catholic episcopate.
The ADF is the deadliest of an estimated 120 armed militia groups that roam the mineral-rich east of the vast central African country, many of them, a legacy of two regional wars from 1996 to 2003.
It is historically a Ugandan Islamist group that has holed up in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since 1995.
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