An attack blamed on Islamic State-linked militants has left dozens dead in eastern DR Congo’s Beni region, local authorities said on Thursday.
Colonel Alain Kiwewa Mitela, a local official in Lubero territory where the overnight attack happened, told AFP that 42 bodies had been found.
An administrative official in the area had earlier given a death toll of more than 25 dead.
It brings to nearly 150 the number of people killed since the start of the month by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), according to figures from local authorities and civil society.
The ADF, historically a Ugandan insurgent coalition, established itself in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 1995.
A civil society leader, Seba Paluku, told AFP there were 41 bodies including some that were “tied up” and “decapitated”.
He said he had gone to the site with soldiers. “The bodies are lying still on the ground, there’s no means of transporting them because vehicles can’t get there.”
Between June 1 and 11, the Islamic State group has claimed about 15 attacks on villages and roads near Beni, killing 125 people, almost all of them civilians.