Rebels affiliated with Islamic State killed at least 60 people in a machete and gun attack in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, an official and a witness said on Tuesday.
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The attack was carried out by the Allied Democratic Force, or ADF, in Ntoyo, North Kivu, after residents gathered at a burial.
“There were about 10 of them. I saw machetes. They told people to gather in one place and started cutting them. I listened to people screaming and I fainted,” a survivor who was present at the burial told Associated Press. She requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
The attack caused around 60 deaths, said Colonel Alain Kiwewa, a local administrator of the Lubero territory, where Ntoyo is located. He added that the final toll was not yet known “because the territory has just deployed services to the area to count the number of beheaded people”.
The region is beset by a set of complex conflicts, including an increase in attacks by the ADF, which operates in the border region between Congo and Uganda.
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Later on Tuesday, a civil society leader reported a second attack by the ADF, in Beni territory in North Kivu, with at least 18 people killed.