More than 40 civilians were killed in a militia attack on a camp for displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province early on Monday,

A local official and the head of a civil society group said they said the CODECO group, one of many militias operating in Congo’s conflict-ridden east, was responsible for the killings at the Lala camp.

Jean Richard Lenga, chief of Bahema Badjere district, said militiamen massacred 46 people with knives and firearms and burnt others in their homes in the middle of the camp.

A civil rights group head, Charite Banza, also put the toll at 46 dead, adding that the victims’ bodies would be buried in a mass grave.

An eye-witness said he had seen “more than 40 bodies” lying on the ground.