The deaths occurred in the village of Gina in Ituri province, “during an incursion by the #CODECO-UDPC and ALC” groups, the Kivu Security Tracker (KST) said on Twitter.

“They also attacked #Nizi, in the same territory,” it said.

The assault began at 4:00 am and lasted for seven hours until the armed forces regained control of the area, one of its specialists told AFP, asking not to be identified.

Ituri is one of three eastern provinces in the vast Democratic Republic of Congo battling armed groups.

The gold-rich province has a long history of ethnic feuds, some of which are rooted in long-standing herder-farmer disputes over cattle.

Fighting between the Hema and Lendu communities flared between 1999 and 2003, claiming tens of thousands of lives.

It was quelled by the intervention of a European Union peacekeeping force, Artemis.

Violence resumed in 2017, blamed on the emergence of the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO), an armed group that claims to defend Lendu interests. CODECO has since split into several rival factions.

The village of Gina is mainly inhabited by Lendu, and before the attack was under the control of the armed forces.

CODECO fighters joined up with another armed group, the Alliance for the Liberation of the Congo (ALC), to carry out the raid, the KST said.

A vehicle used by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) came under attack in the same area, the charity said earlier.

Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu were placed under a “state of siege” on May 6 — an exceptional measure aimed at combatting armed groups, especially the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which has been blamed for taking thousands of lives.

Under this tactic, the authorities have replaced senior civilian officials in the two provinces with military or police officers.