Men armed with knives, machetes and pick-axes killed 10 people in an overnight attack on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a witness and a local rights group said on Tuesday, blaming a Islamist militia.
Killings by armed groups more than doubled last year, according to the United Nations.
In late 2019 the Congo army began a campaign to eliminate the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan militia that has been operating in the vast country since the 1990s. The ADF has responded with a rash of retaliatory massacres of civilians.
"We are now preparing for the burial of our fallen compatriots. They were executed," said Jean Manzekele, the head of Kalembo village in North Kivu, 45 km southeast of Beni.
"We realized that it was the ADF because of the way they attacked. They were shouting loudly in a foreign language which was difficult to understand."
The army said it had secured the village and was pursuing the attackers, who also injured two people.