Islamist insurgents killed nine civilians in a series of attacks in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday and Friday, local traditional chief Fataki Sabuni told the media.
The assailants used machetes and firearms to fatally attack people working in the fields in a rural region straddling the border between the conflict-ridden provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, Sabuni said, adding that two women were among the dead.
The military administrator of North Kivu's Beni territory, Colonel Charles Ehuta Omeanga, confirmed the death toll and said that the army is pursuing the attackers.
"The assailants are roaming the area and killing anyone they meet along the way, but our soldiers are in pursuit," Ehuta Omeanga told the media.
Security in the eastern part of the country has been a major concern for the DRC in recent years due to a widespread armed anti-government campaign by the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels.
In late January, DR Congo's army accused the M23 movement of killing 19 civilians and injuring 27 others in a mortar attack on the eastern DR Congo town of Mweso.
The M23, a group fighting for the interests of the DRC's Tutsi ethnic minority, first rebelled against the government in 2012, but suffered a major military defeat in 2013 and was disbanded. The rebels took up arms again in 2021, accusing the country's authorities of violating agreements to integrate disarmed M23 rebels into the army.