Dozens killed in militant attack on eastern DRC village

A suspected militant attack on a village has claimed the lives of dozens of people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Local security forces have been dispatched to the village in Irumu territory to investigate, provincial interior minister Adjio Gidi said.

"The death toll as of this afternoon is reported to be 46," Gidi said.

He said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were behind the raid. 

The Ugandan armed group is believed to have carried out a string of massacres in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing more than 1,000 civilians since the start of 2019, according to UN figures.

READ MORE: DRC sees second 'savage' massacre of civilians in a week

Over 100 different militias

After being alerted to the latest violence, troops went to the village and are in the process of recovering bodies, local army spokesman Jules Ngongo said. He did not say how many had been killed.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are home to a constellation of over 100 different militias, many remnants of its brutal civil wars that officially ended in 2003.

On Sunday, unidentified attackers killed at least six rangers in an ambush in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park, a sanctuary for endangered mountain gorillas.

Daesh has claimed responsibility for many suspected ADF attacks in the past, although UN experts have not been able to confirm any direct link between the two groups.

READ MORE: Dozens killed in east DRC attacks - govt