Militia fighters massacred seven people in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday in a region where in intercommunal violence has killed hundreds since 2017.
The attack came as UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet began a five-day visit to Ituri province where the UN says killings and rapes may constitute crimes against humanity.
The seven people were killed in Djugu area and another 15 people were kidnapped by the armed group, Banze Charite, a local district association president, told AFP.
DR Congo's army this month said it had killed 16 members of the local Codeco militia after launching a crackdown on the armed group.
Eastern DR Congo has been plagued for years by numerous militias, a legacy of the two Congo wars in the 1990s that dragged in neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda.
But Ituri province has been caught up in fighting between armed groups from the ethnic Lendu communities and the Hema community over land and resources.
Since February last year, nearly 57,000 people have taken refuge in Uganda and more than 556,000 have fled to neighbouring regions, according to UN figures.
The UN has documented a range of atrocities, including the raping of women, the killing of school children and looting and burning of villages.
In Bunia, capital of Ituri province, local authorities denounced violence committed by the pro-Lendu Codeco militiamen to Bachelet.
Tensions between the Lendu, who are sedentary farmers, and the Hema, who are predominantly cattle herders and traders, have a long history.
Conflict between the two groups between 1999 and 2003 caused tens of thousands of deaths, ending only with the dispatch of a European force called Artemis -- the first rapid-reaction military mission by the European Union outside Europe.