At least 23 were killed when suspected armed militants linked to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) carried out a raid on a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the military said.
The group has also claimed responsibility for the incident.
The attack occurred overnight on Sunday, January 22 in the village of Makugwe, in the Beni area of North Kivu province, civil society leader Roger Wangeve told local media.
Wangeve said that the attackers looted and torched several homes and shops in the village, and carried off several villagers into the bush.
Provincial deputy Saidi Balikwisha, who was in Makugwe during the attack, said three people were still missing.
Colonel Charles Omeonga, the Congolese military administrator of Beni territory, told the media that soldiers were “in pursuit of the enemy”, who he said were hiding among the local population.
The ADF is one of the deadliest groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a volatile region that has been plagued by militia violence for decades.
The militia — which the Islamic State group claims is its central African affiliate -has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda.
On January 15, suspected ADF operatives detonated a bomb in a church in North Kivu, killing at least 14 people and injuring another 63.
