Five civilians and five soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo's army were killed in an attack on a bar in a troubled northeastern region, officials said on Monday.
Long plagued by violence, Ituri province is the scene of a conflict between rival ethnic militias which has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and massive population displacements.
On Sunday evening, weapons-wielding assailants burst into the bar in the town of Nizi 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the regional capital Bunia, military and local sources said.
The attackers killed a traditional chief and three other people including a civil society representative on the spot, Djugu police administrator Colonel Ruphin Mapela told AFP.
Deadly intervention
Another civilian, who was shot, died after being rushed to hospital, Mapela added.
The colonel said that Sunday night's attack led the DRC's armed forces stationed in Nizi to intervene, after which "five of them died."
Confirming the toll, provincial army spokesperson Lieutenant Jules Ngongo said the attackers "ambushed" the soldiers.
"Initial indications clearly show that it was Zaire militiamen who committed this crime," Ngongo added.
Set up in 2019, the Zaire militia claims to be fighting to defend the interests of the Hema ethnic community against the rival Lendu tribe.
'Empty'
Nizi "has been empty, the inhabitants have fled and the schools have not resumed" since the attack, local civil society leader Jean-Paul Malo Lotsima told AFP.
At the beginning of July, traditional leaders of the Mambisa chiefdom, of which Nizi is the main town, complained to the provincial governor about the presence of Zaire militiamen in the region.
Inter-communal violence killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003 until an intervention by European forces restored calm.
The conflict erupted again in 2017, resulting in thousands more deaths and the mass displacement of residents.
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