Rebels said today that at least 54 people were killed in renewed tribal fighting in northeast Congo.
The fighting came close to the town of Bunia where an international force has been deployed to try and keep the peace.
A spokesman for the mainly Hema PUSIC rebel group said militias allied to the Lendu tribe attacked the town of Tchomia, around 50 kilometres east of Bunia on the shores of Lake Albert, on Tuesday morning.
"The attack was carried out by Lendu militia and rebels of the RCD-ML," or the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Kisangani, he said.
"The attackers burnt three houses but we killed 32 of them before they fled in to the mountains".
United Nations sources in Bunia said they also had reports of fighting in Tchomia. Fighting around the town last month is thought to have killed more than 350 people. It is difficult to confirm death tolls in the remote region.
A French-led international force was sent to Bunia to intervene after fighting killed hundreds of civilians there, but it does not have the mandate to go beyond Bunia.
A permanent UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, has neither the mandate nor the manpower to intervene in fighting. The UN is under pressure to increase MONUC's mandate.
Congo's war started in 1998 when Uganda and Rwanda invaded to back rebels trying to topple the government, and it has dragged in many foreign armies and numerous rebel groups.