KIGALI, Rwanda

At least 19 people were killed and others kidnapped in the latest overnight attack by suspected rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a civil society official said Monday.

"The attackers went door-to-door killing civilians with knives. Provisional toll is 19 civilians killed," Mabele Musaidi, head of the civil society in Watalinga chiefdom, told broadcaster Top Congo FM.

The attack took place in Kitsanga, a village in the province of North Kivu, at around 11.30 p.m. local time (2130GMT) on Sunday, about 19 kilometers (11.8 miles) north of a crossing with Uganda, perpetrated by suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) a Ugandan terrorist group that has allegiance to the terrorist group Daesh/ISIS.

"People are astonished seeing civilians killed without any military intervention because these assailants were already reported around the neighborhood," Musaidi said on the attack that occurred in the Watalinga chiefdom in Beni territory.

Captain Anthony Mwalushayi, a military spokesman, confirmed that the attack happened but put the death toll at 11, with seven houses burned.

Mwalushayi said army forces intervened and managed to neutralize six attackers and free some kidnapped civilians, including an infant.

The incident came three weeks after a similar attack attributed to the same rebel group left 27 dead in the town of Oicha, also in Beni territory.

In late 2021, Congolese and Ugandan military launched joint operations to flush out the ADF, which was founded in the 1990s by several opposition movements in Uganda to topple the government of President Yoweri Museveni. The group pledged allegiance to ISIS/Daesh terrorist organization in 2019.