BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 4 (Xinhua) -- At least seven people were killed Sunday in an ambush by suspected Ugandan rebels in Beni, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), security sources said.

Suspected rebels of the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) also kidnapped eight others in the ambush on the Eringeti road, according to the sources, who requested anonymity.

Ugandan rebels are active on several roads in Beni territory where they regularly attack civilian transport vehicles.

Active for more than 20 years in this part of the country, ADF rebels have killed thousands in the province of North Kivu.

The DRC military recently started a large-scale operation against the rebel group. </s> , BENI , Democratic Republic of Congo, Sep 23 – Sixteen people, including 12 civilians, were killed in a rebel attack on Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive east, witnesses told AFP on Sunday.

A doctor at the local hospital reported seeing 16 dead bodies, “including 12 civilians and four soldiers or rebels.” Eight people were injured, of whom five civilians, in the attack late Saturday.

The Beni region is under siege from the Allied Defence Forces (ADF), an Islamist rebel group blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths over the past four years.

Foreign humanitarian workers have been stationed in Beni, in the north Kivu province near the border with Uganda, since early August to deal with a new Ebola outbreak in the region.

“The surprise attack happened in the streets of Beni city,” the doctor told AFP. Four of the dead were killed while travelling in a taxi.

According to several witness accounts, the attack started around 1630-1700 GMT.

Heavy and light calibre gunfire was heard for several hours until after midnight local time. It was not known whether the army counter-attacked.

The rebels targeted areas near the centre of the trading settlement of several hundred thousand inhabitants.

The ADF is a militia initially created by Muslim rebels to oppose Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, but also operates in the DRC.

The group has been in the east of the country since 1995 and are accused by the UN and Congolese authorities of committing a series of civilian massacres since 2014.

However, in 2015 the New York University Study Group on Congo said it was not just the ADF behind the killings and that other armed elements, including members of the Congolese army, were also to blame.

North Kivu, one of the most populated areas of the DRC, is home to a number of armed groups that kill or abduct civilians. </s> Seven people died in a raid by suspected Ugandan Islamist rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest in a string of deadly cross-border attacks, officials said Sunday.

"Six people were shot dead and another was stabbed" in the village of Eringeti in DR Congo's restive North Kivu province, a Congolese military source told AFP.

Eringeti's mayor Leon Baungatho said the assault happened around 5.30 pm (1530 GMT) on Saturday.

"We are still grieving," said regional official Noela Kavivutwiraki. "The army needs to redouble its efforts to prevent suprise attacks from Ugandan rebels."

Thought to be behind a string of deadly attacks in North Kivu, the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia stands accused of a number of attrocities in DR Congo.

Congolese authorities and the UN mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, accuse the ADF of having killed more than 700 civilians as well as combatants in the Beni region from 2014-16.

The ADF is also accused of killing 14 UN peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo on December 7, in the biggest single loss of peacekeepers in nearly a quarter of a century.

The government in January declared it was waging "war" on the ADF and a Congolese militia, the Yakutumba, which is active in South Kivu province, several hundred kilometres (miles) to the south.
Seven people are killed in an attack on the city of Beni, North Kivu, DR Congo by the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group, which crossed the border from Uganda.