Suspected Islamists kill 10 villagers in eastern Congo

BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Attackers killed around 10 people in an overnight raid on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities and the army said on Tuesday, blaming fighters from a Ugandan Islamist armed group.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan armed group active in eastern Congo since the 1990s, has committed a succession of brutal reprisal attacks against civilians since the army began an operation against it in late 2019.

The group killed around 850 people last year, according to U.N. figures.

"So far a provisional assessment is of about ten people killed. It is attributed to the Islamist ADF fighters," said Rosette Kavula, deputy administrator of Beni territory.

An army spokesman confirmed the attack and said troops had been deployed to the area at the foot of the Rwenzori mountains on the border with Uganda.

The Kivu Security Tracker, a research initiative that maps unrest in the region, said suspected ADF fighters had killed 10 people in the village of Kabembeu, near Mwenda.

It follows a similar massacre in the nearby village of Mabule on Friday night.

"The victims are all those who left the village Mwenda to hide in the mountains, but unfortunately the ADF pursued them," said Mbweki Juvenal, head of a civil rights group in Mwenda.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for several suspected ADF attacks in the past, although U.N. experts have not found any direct link between the two groups.