Ten individuals were brutally slain in an attack in the Masisi region of the eastern Congolese province of North Kivu by a new armed organisation known as Shishikara.
According to civil society sources cited by Radio Okapi, the slaughter occurred more than two weeks ago.
They also accused the new militia of carrying out multiple attacks on the civilian population of Boabo and Banyungu with complete impunity. They also attack cattle on farms in the area.
A civil society activist from Masisi, Thélésphore Mitondeke, has stated that he has previously warned the proper civil and military authorities of these "severe abuses committed daily by these combatants".
Lieutenant Colonel Guillaume Ndjike Kaiko, a spokesman for the province government, confirmed Radio Okapi that he was unaware of the existence of this new militia and promised to investigate.
In addition, a man in his twenties was slain on Sunday in an attack claimed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in Wangatsu, Eringeti commune, Beni area, also in North Kivu.
According to the Congolese news portal Actualité, quoting a province government spokeswoman, two additional persons were critically injured.
At 8 a.m. Sunday, ADF militiamen came into Wangatsu and shot the victim before torching his home. Before abandoning the region, they also took cattle.
The ADF, a Ugandan group founded in the 1990s that has been accused of killing hundreds of civilians in eastern DRC, may be attempting to re-establish itself in Uganda, where it withdrew in 2003 following a series of military operations that severely limited its ability to carry out attacks in the country.
The organisation split in 2019 after Musa Baluku, who was sanctioned by the UN and the US, professed allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), under whose flag it has been operating since.
The escalation in his strikes, as well as the accusation of an attack in Kampala, Uganda, prompted both governments to undertake combined operations in eastern DRC.