Armed with guns and machetes, the suspected militants from the Uganda-based group on July 5 attacked three Christian communities near the town of Oicha in eastern Congo, killing the nine people including a church elder, according to U.K.-based aid organization Barnabas Fund. The assailants also looted homes and stole livestock, Barnabas Fund reported.
The slaughter took place after a similar massacre on May 3 on Christians in a village 15 miles north of Oicha in which MDI killed at least 30 Christians.
The violence prompted thousands of area villagers to flee. Barnabas Fund reported that local Non-Governmental Organizations estimate that Islamist militants have killed more than 1,000 people killed in predominately Christian eastern DRC between October 2014 and May 2016, and nearly 1,500 abducted and more than 34,000 forcibly displaced.
