At least twenty civilians were killed on Monday night in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in an attack attributed to the ADF rebels, affiliated to the Islamic State group, local sources said.

The attack took place on the outskirts of Oicha, a town in Beni territory in the north of North Kivu province.

“So far we have 20 bodies,” Nicolas Kikuku, the town’s mayor, told AFP by telephone early this morning.

“We have just deposited 26 bodies in the morgue”, said Darius Syaira, rapporteur for civil society in Beni territory. According to him, the victims were 12 minors and 14 adults, most of whom were killed with knives.

Originally Ugandan rebels with a Muslim majority, the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) have been present in the east of the DRC since the 1990s, where they are accused of having massacred thousands of civilians.

In Uganda, the authorities accuse them of killing three people, including two foreign tourists, on 17 October in Queen Elizabeth Park.