GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo

At least 10 people including seven women were killed during a raid on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), local authorities said Wednesday.

Two others were also kidnapped during the raid, which came days after the army launched an operation against rebel groups.

The attack, which was blamed on members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group in Uganda and the DRC, took place late Tuesday in the town of Kokola, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the city of Beni in North Kivu province.

Donat Kibwana, a local official, told the media that the rebels took advantage of the army’s operations deep in the forests to attack civilians.

A 16-year-old girl was among those reported missing.

The rebels also stole livestock including goats and chickens during the raid, which took place around 8 p.m. local time, according to a civil society group in the area.

The situation is tense, with some people abandoning their homes, some fleeing to the north to the nearby town of Eringeti and others to the Oicha area, local news site Actualite.cd quoted Bravo Vukulu, president of the civil society of the Bambuba-Kisiki group, as saying.

The raid reportedly lasted more than an hour before the attackers withdrew.

The Congolese army launched a major military operation on Oct. 29 against armed groups in the eastern part of the country.

The large-scale operation is aimed at completely eradicating groups such as the ADF and the Mai-Mai operating in the far north in Beni, Butembo and Lubero, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Leon Kasonga told reporters last week.

The civil society in Beni has called on the army to be more vigilant after launching the offensive.

ADF rebels have been a menace in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over the last two decades, attacking and killing civilians.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch released in August, armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Kivu provinces killed 1,900 civilians and abducted more than 3,300 others between June 2017 and June 2019.