At least 35 people were killed when pro-government militia attacked a village in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local and security sources said on Friday.
The attack happened at about 3:00am Thursday in the village of Tambi, in the Masisi area of North Kivu province controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group.
A security source told AFP that at least 35 people were killed in the attack, while local sources and an eyewitness put the death toll at more than 40.
A community leader and a medical source said villagers had recently returned to the area after having fled fighting between the Rwanda-backed M23 and the Congolese army and local militia.
鈥楾he 鈥榳azalendo鈥� [patriots in Swahili] militia went to attack Tambi where residents had started to return... they opened fire and civilians were killed,鈥� said one community leader, who said 43 people died.
鈥楾hey put some victims in a church and then shot them. Those who were in the fields were killed there.鈥�
The community leader, a local health worker and a local resident said another group of civilians sought refuge in a house and died when the militia set it on fire.
鈥榃e counted 47 bodies in the morning,鈥� the resident said, adding that they were buried in a communal grave.
Some of the victims were unable to be identified because of their burns, he added.
Different groups make up the militia, which has fought alongside the Congolese army against the M23. Their fighters are often accused of attacking civilians.
The M23, which according to UN experts is backed by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, is also accused of abuses.
The armed group resumed its fight against the government in Kinshasa in 2021 and has since seized swathes of territory in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda.
A lightning offensive in recent weeks has seen it capture the provincial capital, Goma, and Bukavu, the main city in the neighbouring province of South Kivu.
The DRC鈥檚 mineral-rich east has been ravaged for three decades by conflict and atrocities.