Local officials claimed suspected Islamist extremists hacked 12 people to death in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, the latest attack in the unstable region.
According to local civil-society representative Ricardo Rupande, fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia started an attack on the village of Bukokoma in North Kivu province's Beni district early Thursday evening.
The ADF is the Islamic State group's central African affiliate. It is one of the worst militias in eastern Congo, accusing thousands of civilians of being slaughtered.
An administrator in the Bukokoma district, Katanga Matete, told AFP that the militants "were creating opportunities and decapitating people with hatchets and machetes."
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He said that twelve persons were slain.
A local Red Cross official, Albert Ndungo, also stated that 12 people were slain "by bladed weapons," including four women and four children.
The AFP was unable to authenticate the attack's details independently. Last week, a similar attack in Beni territory resulted in the deaths of nine people.
Based on the UN Office for the OCHA (Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), around 50 people were killed in Beni territory in May alone.
Since late 2021, a joint Congolese-Ugandan military effort targeting the ADF in eastern Congo has been ongoing, although attacks have continued.
Armed groups control much of the dangerous region, a legacy of regional hostilities that erupted in the 1990s and early 2000s.
