Suspected Islamist militants hacked 12 people to death in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, local officials said, in the latest attack in the troubled region. 

Fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group launched an attack  early Thursday evening on the village of Bukokoma, in North Kivu province's Beni territory, according to local civil-society representative Ricardo Rupande.

Katanga Matete, an administrator in the Bukokoma area, told AFP that the  militants "were opening doors and decapitating people with hatchets and  machetes." 

Twelve people were killed, he said. 

Albert Ndungo, a local Red Cross official, also said that 12 people were killed "by bladed weapons," including four women and four children. 

AFP was unable to independently confirm the details of the attack. Thursday's violence follows a similar attack in Beni territory last week, which saw nine people killed. 

Over 50 people have been killed in Beni territory in May alone, according to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Much of the volatile region is prey to armed groups, a legacy of regional wars that flared during the 1990s and early 2000s.