Suspected Islamist militants ambushed and killed at least 16 people, including six women and two children, on a remote road in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo.
The incident occurred on a road near the town of Oicha, around 390 km (242 miles) north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma.
From the 9 injured, three, including a baby, are in critical condition, hospital staff said.
Survivors believe the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militant group that claims links to Islamic State, are responsible for the attack.
Allegedly, the group has been killing thousands of people since 2014, mostly in similarly remote areas.
According to a local farmer, Maman Masika Kahindo, fighters dressed in ADF fatigues fired on the crowded vehicle and killed her 11-year-old son as they were travelling in a minibus.
Kahindo, who wore bandages over her chest where she said she had been grazed by gunfire, said, “They fired several bullets and the driver immediately died.”
She added, “They took him out of the vehicle and shot my child in the head.”
The head of local coalition of civil society groups,
Janvier Kasayiro, also blamed Islamist militants, adding that several people who had been travelling in the same bus as Kahindo were still missing.
In an attempt to quell a surge in violence that the military largely attributes to the ADF, at the beginning of May the government declared martial law in North Kivu and the neighbouring Ituri province.
However, the Kivu Security Tracker indicates the number of civilians killed in such attacks has only increased since then.
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