BOMB KILLS AT LEAST FIVE AT DR CONGO CHURCH

BENI - A bomb killed at least five people on Sunday after detonating in a church in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the army said.

Details of the attack remain hazy, but military spokesman Antony Mualushayi said the "terrorist act" happened in a Pentecostal church in North Kivu province's Kasindi, a town on the border with Uganda.

Mualushayi later told reporters that at least five bodies had been taken to the morgue following the blast, in what he called a provisional death toll.

Joel Kitausa, a local civil society figure, put the death toll at eight and said 27 other people had been wounded.

AFP was unable to independently confirm the toll.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack. Mualushayi said that one suspect -- a Kenyan -- had been arrested.

The DRC's communications ministry said on social media that the attack was apparently carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group.

The ADF -- which the Islamic State group claims as its affiliate in Central Africa -- is active in the Kasindi area.

It has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda.

The ADF has planted bombs in towns in North Kivu in the past.

Since 2021 a joint Congolese-Ugandan military operation has been targeting the ADF in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province.

Over 120 armed groups roam mineral-rich eastern DRC, many of which are the legacy of regional wars that flared at the turn of the 21st century.