Militants kill at least 10 people in eastern DRC attack

Militants have killed 10 people including a soldier in the latest overnight attack on a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a local official and a military officer said.

"They surprised the people in their homes," the administrator of Beni territory, Donat Kasereka Kibwana, told The Associated Press.

The attack by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militants on Alungupa village, about 25 kilometres outside the often-targeted city of Beni, occurred while the president of the National Assembly was visiting the city and meeting with survivors of past massacres.

Jeanine Mabunda during her visit vowed that the assembly would create laws to augment the DRC military presence in the Beni region.

Residents have long accused the government in faraway Kinshasa of neglect.

Kibwana said Alungupa village is now under military control.

The administrator appealed for calm and collaboration with authorities.

Volatile region

Dozens of armed groups are active in mineral-rich eastern DRC. 

Attacks have caused tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and complicated health workers’ efforts to contain an Ebola virus outbreak in the region.

A local civil society group known as CEPADHO says ADF rebels have killed more than 300 people in the Beni region since October alone.

The ADF, originally a Ugandan rebel group, has been operating along the DRC/Uganda border for more than two decades and remains one of a number of armed factions active in east DRC long after the official end of a 1998-2003 war.