The gunmen used firearms and machetes to attack residents of villages in Beni territory, North Kivu province.
Rebel fighters affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) killed at least 38 people in an overnight attack on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), officials and a civil society leader in the region said.
Gunmen used firearms and machetes to attack residents of villages in Beni territory in North Kivu province overnight on Friday, local official Fabien Kakule said.
District official Leon Kakule Siviwe said the recent spike in violence was due to the attackers taking advantage of a small security presence.
Local civil society leader Justin Kavalami blamed the attack on members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The ADF, which is also accused of being behind another village attack that killed at least 16 people earlier this week, was originally based in neighboring Uganda. After spreading into eastern DRC, it pledged allegiance to ISIL in 2018 and has organized frequent attacks, further destabilizing a region where many armed groups are active.
The ADF has killed more than 50 people in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo region this week, local officials said.
Since late 2021, the Congolese and Ugandan armies have carried out joint operations against the ADF in North Kivu and neighboring Ituri, but have so far failed to stop deadly attacks on civilians.
Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by violence by armed groups for decades, and both the government and foreign actors have provided weapons to the belligerents. The Rwandan-backed M23 (March 23 Movement) resumed its armed campaign in the region in late 2021, seizing swaths of territory in North Kivu, as intensified fighting continues to displace tens of thousands of people.
Around 6.9 million people across the Democratic Republic of the Congo were displaced late last year, mainly in the eastern provinces.
Since an escalation of hostilities in March 2022, more than 1.6 million people have been expelled from their homes in North Kivu, in the east of the country.
