At least 16 people were killed by a suspected Islamist rebel group based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, an official from the local administration said on Wednesday, The EastAfrican reports.

Reports indicate that the perpetrators are the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan insurgency which has operated from the jungles of eastern DR Congo for almost three decades. The ADF, a branch of the Islamic State in Central Africa linked to the terrorists in northern Mozambique, is one of the more than 200 militia groups operating in the jungles of eastern DR Congo. The militia pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in 2019.

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"We believe that the ADF are the perpetrators of this attack, they took advantage of the departure of the military in the area to come and kill the population," local official Fabien Kakule Viriro told Reuters.

The victims were hacked to death with machetes while they were in their homes or in the fields, the official said, adding that some were executed while they were trying to escape.