Late on Monday, Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) militants attacked the Djaiba group of villages, setting houses full of people on fire, shooting bullets and beheading residents with machetes.

The night before, they carried out an attack on a local camp for internally displaced people before being repelled by the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force, known as MONUSCO.

The head of the cluster of villages, located in Djugu territory in Ituri province, Jean Vianney, said CODECO militants carried out the attack, which started at around 8pm CAT on Monday, killing 52 people.

"There are people injured, many burnt to death in their homes," he said, adding that Congolese soldiers and UN peacekeepers stationed in the area did not intervene.

Floribert Byaruhanga, an MP for Djugu territory, said the death toll, including 18 children, currently stood at 51.

Lists from a civil society group in Ituri showed that 51 people were killed overnight from Monday to Tuesday.

A Djaiba resident who survived the massacre, Daniel Kisembo, told Reuters he counted 51 bodies, most of them charred.

CODECO is one of a myriad of militias fighting over land and resources in east DRC. It has frequently targeted displacement camps.

Militants have been accused in the past by the UN of attacks against other communities including Hema herders that could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The majority of residents in Djugu territory are Hema.

Provincial army Spokesperson Jules Ngono said soldiers tried to help but arrived too late to avoid the carnage.

"What happened to the Djaiba group is the worst in terms of the deaths of our people, and we strongly condemn it," he said via telephone.

UN mission spokesman Jean-Tobie Okala said in a statement that peacekeepers had managed to protect displaced people in the camp.

"But they are limited, especially when the attackers come in large numbers, as they did last night," Okala added.

--Reuters--