(BSS/AFP) - Clashes broke out on Sunday in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo after at least seven people were killed in an attack by Islamic State-linked rebels, local and military sources told AFP.

The mineral-rich region has been plagued by violence for more than 30 years from militias and other armed groups, including the Allied Democratic Forces formed by Ugandan rebels.

The ADF, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, is notorious for extreme violence against civilians and has carried out repeated massacres in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.

ADF fighters launched an incursion overnight Saturday-Sunday between the localities of Ngadi and Mavivi, on the outskirts of the city of Beni in North Kivu, said Lieutenant Marc Elongo, a Congolese army spokesman in the region.

Six citizens had their throats cut and a soldier was killed "pursuing the enemy", he added.

"The enemy entered Ngadi at about 11:00 pm, here at the Pygmy camp. They killed six Pygmies," said Oswald Kambale, a local civil society group member.

"Several bodies are still in the forest because we don`t have access to the area," he added.

One of the Pygmy victims was a well known artist, according to local sources.

"We were already asleep when the ADF came in here. They opened the doors and made us go outside, asking us our names," said Baraka Gelote.

"I fled with my child," then "looking back, I saw they were already executing the other inhabitants of our camp," he added.

On Sunday, residents protested in Beni, carrying the bodies of some of the victims and chanting slogans against the Congolese army, accusing them of having been slow to intervene, an AFP reporter said.

Police dispersed the crowd with teargas.

The Ugandan army has been deployed since 2021 in northeast DR Congo to fight the ADF alongside the Congolese army.

But the joint operation has not ended attacks. Residents regularly accuse the military of failing to protect civilians.