DRC sleuths arrest Kenyan over terror attack on church
A Kenyan has been arrested in connection with a terror attack on a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Sunday that left at least 10 people dead.
Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) detectives said they had been informed the Congolese authorities are holding 29-year-old Abdirizak Muktar Garad. The suspect hails from Wajir county.
The bomb attack took place at a church in Kasindi, North Kivu, near the DRC-Uganda border, in which sources said at least 10 people were killed and more than 39 others injured.
Detectives at the ATPU yesterday launched investigations to get more details about the suspect, his network and local accomplices. Police confirmed they had been informed of the arrest.
According to the local Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) Spokesman Anthony Mualushayi, after an initial investigation at the scene of the attack, the Kenyan suspect was arrested on suspicion of having been involved in the planning and execution of the attack now associated with the Allied Democratic Force (ADF).
According to the FARDC, the terrorist attack on Sunday was perpetrated “in retaliation for the losses the terrorists have suffered in several battlefields against the FARDC.”
This is not the first time a Kenyan has been linked to terror in DRC.
In January 2022, another Kenyan, Salim Rashid Mohamed aka Chotara, was arrested in DRC following months of hunting by Congolese authorities.
Intelligence reports revealed that a network of terrorists had been established in the country, attracting certain people from across East Africa. Salim and several other suspects were said to have crossed into the DRC via Uganda.
The bomb attack happened during a service at a Protestant church in the eastern DRC. Mualushayi said the attack was likely carried out by the ADF, a Ugandan armed group that has pledged allegiance to ISIL (ISIS). After the attack on Sunday, the ISIL group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The ADF, which began as an uprising in Uganda, has been based in the DRC since the late 1990s. Kasindi is in a province where Congolese and Ugandan forces have launched a campaign against the ADF.
Troops from Uganda’s army have been deployed to eastern Congo to try to stem the violence, but the attacks have increased and spread.
Operations beefed up
ADF attacks since April have killed at least 370 civilians and involved the abduction of several hundred more, a report by the United Nations last month said.
The rebel group has extended its area of operations to Goma and into neighbouring Ituri province where Kenyan troops are.
More than 120 armed groups roam mineral-rich eastern DRC. Many are the legacy of regional wars that flared at the turn of the Century. Security operations have been beefed up across the region.
In January 2022, another Kenyan, Salim Rashid Mohamed aka Chotara, was arrested in DRC following months of hunt by Congolese authorities. The DRC security services had then claimed that a network of terrorists had been established in the DRC attracting certain people from across East Africa. Salim and several other suspects were said to have crossed into the DRC via Uganda.
According to the FARDC, the terrorist attack on Sunday was perpetrated “in retaliation for the losses the terrorists have suffered in several battlefields against the FARDC.”
On Thursday, the United States and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) placed a Sh1.2 billion bounty on one of the masterminds of the 2019 DusitD2 terror attack.
The US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman and DCI boss Mohammed Amin released the photo of Mohamoud Abdi Aden, a leader of the terrorist group al Shabaab, said to be part of the cell that planned the attack on the hotel. The January 15, 2019 attack claimed 22 lives and that of four terrorists. It all began at 3.28 pm with a detonation of a suicide bomber, Mahir Riziki.
Four gunmen – Ali Salim Gichunge, Osman Ibrahim Gedi, Siyat Omar Abdi, and an unknown individual – then proceeded to attack the compound using AK-pattern rifles and grenades, targeting people within the hotel and surrounding shops.
