Rwandan Hutu rebels killed three villagers and burned houses in Bingi village in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu, prompting residents to flee their homes, authorities said Sunday.
Exiled Hutu fighters from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was implicated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, arrived on Friday at the village some 150km north of Goma, the province's main town.
They had been flushed out of the Virunga National Park where the United Nations is leading a major operation with DR Congo (DRC) troops to rout rebels from the UNESCO world heritage site, home to the endangered mountain gorilla.
Several dozen in number, the rebels attacked the three villagers with knives and set seven houses ablaze, authorities said.
Some 800 DRC soldiers and 500 forces of the UN mission known as MONUC have destroyed five rebel camps and captured dozens of fighters since their operation against FDLR rebels and local Mai Mai militiamen began on October 31.
The rebels have been based in the forests of the eastern DRC since the Tutsis took control of Rwanda and are considered a risk to the stability of the Great Lakes region.
MONUC, the largest and most expensive UN peacekeeping mission, is helping pave the way for DRC elections due by next June.