BENI, DRC —The death toll of two attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has climbed to at least 18, with 14 people missing, local sources told AFP on Sunday.

The attacks, which took place Saturday in the Beni territory in the troubled North Kivu province, were blamed on ADF rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group.

The death toll of those killed "has been revised from 10 to 18 people," Kinos Katuo, a civil society leader of the area where the attacks took place, told AFP.

He added that 14 people are missing, with four houses and two motorcycles also burned.

Another local leader, Charles Endukado, told AFP the number of people killed in the attacks is "more than 18."

"No one can go to recover the bodies that are still lying on the ground," he said.

The ADF, originally mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, have established a presence over the past three decades in eastern DRC, killing thousands of civilians.

The group pledged allegiance in 2019 to the Islamic State group, which portrays them as its central African branch.

The ADF was also blamed for an attack that killed 20 at the end of July.

Local authorities in Beni told AFP in mid-June that since the beginning of the same month 150 people had been killed in attacks attributed to the ADF in eastern DRC.

Since the end of 2021, the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been conducting joint operations against the ADF in North Kivu and the neighboring province of Ituri, but have so far failed to stop the deadly attacks on civilians.

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