BUNIA, DR Congo, Oct 15, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Suspected militiamen hacked 12 people to death with machetes in a village in eastern DR Congo, a region plagued by violence from armed groups for years, local sources said Saturday.

The armed men attacked the village of Masome in Ituri province on Friday morning, local civil society leader Gustave Kakani told AFP.

"The victims were women and men, cut up with machetes. Some bodies were decapitated, others were found tied up. The victims were subjected to atrocious torture before being executed," he added.

The Irumu territory in Ituri, where the attack occurred, is a regular theatre of violence attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group,

The ADF -- which the Islamic State group claims as its Central African offshoot -- is among the most violent of more than 120 armed groups active in DRC's volatile east.

It has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in neighbouring Uganda.

But Kakani said it was too early to say who was responsible for Friday's gruesome attack

"Twelve bodies have been collected," confirmed Colonel Siro Simba, military administrator of Irumu territory.

"The perpetrators of this crime are bandits," he said.