Suspected rebels have killed 15 civilians over two days in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the ADF armed group has carried out repeated attacks, local officials and rights activists said Tuesday.

The Kivu Security Tracker reported at least 10 people killed in the village of Kabembeu in North Kivu province overnight.

"The #ADF are suspected," the project involving the Congo Research Group and Human Rights Watch said on Twitter.

The victims were farmers who had taken refuge in an encampment, local chief Muvunga Kamwele told AFP.

On the previous night in the same area, "five people were killed with knives by ADF attackers in the town of Halungupa," local official Donat Kibwana told AFP.

After a month of relative calm, a resurgence of attacks attributed to the ADF -- or the Allied Democratic Forces -- began overnight Friday to Saturday when 12 civilians were killed.

Originally Ugandan Muslim rebels, the ADF settled in the DRC in 1995.

In recent years they have given up on attacks in neighbouring Uganda, but have carried out repeated massacres in the Beni region of the DRC, killing more than 1,000 people since October 2014.

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