The attackers tied up villagers and killed them with machetes and other weapons while others fled, said a civil society leader, Maurice Mabele Musaidi, who gave an initial death toll of 19.

Some may have drowned as they tried to cross the Lamia river into Uganda, he added, noting that many were still missing.

A local official said later on Monday that the death toll had risen to at least 33, including an army captain. Two were children who drowned as they tried to reach Uganda.

Twenty-three victims were buried in the village, while six people were taken hostage to help carry looted goods and then executed, he added.

A humanitarian worker confirmed his team had helped bury 23 bodies. He said the army captain’s body had been taken to another location.

A spokesperson for Congo’s army said the attack in Beni territory’s Watalinga chiefdom was carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group based in eastern Congo that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

The ADF formed in Uganda before moving over the border in the 1990s and has been blamed for thousands of killings in the last decade.

Congo’s army said it killed at least six of the militants that night, without going into detail on the operation.

The latest reported killing took place as Congo gears up for general elections on Dec. 20, for which campaigning is set to begin next week.

The electoral commission said on Monday that the vote would go ahead despite security concerns.

Nguesso spoke at a Russia-Africa forum in St Petersburg hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said the peace proposal would be discussed later in the day.

Kalehe (AP) — The death toll from flash floods and landslides in eastern Congo has risen beyond 200, with many more people still missing, according to local authorities in the province of South Kivu.

Thomas Bakenge, administrator of Kalehe, the worst-hit territory, told reporters on the scene Saturday that 203 bodies had been recovered so far, but that efforts to find others were continuing.

In the village of Nyamukubi, where hundreds of homes were washed away, rescue workers and survivors dug through the ruins Saturday looking for more bodies in the mud.

Villagers wept as they gathered around some of the bodies recovered so far, which lay on the grass covered in muddy cloths near a rescue workers post.

Grieving survivor Anuarite Zikujuwa said she had lost her entire family, including her in-laws, as well as many of her neighbors. “The whole village has been turned into a wasteland. There’s only stones left and we can’t even tell where our land once was,” she said.

Michake Ntamana, a rescue worker helping look for and bury the dead, said villagers were trying to identify and collect the bodies of loved ones found so far. He said some bodies washed down from villages higher in the hills were being buried shrouded just in leaves off the trees. “It’s truly sad because we have nothing else here,” he said.

Rivers broke their banks in villages in the territory of Kalehe, close to the shores of Lake Kivu on Thursday. Authorities have reported scores of people injured. One surivor told AP the flash floods came so fast that they took everyone by surprise.

South Kivu Gov. Théo Ngwabidje visited the area to see the destruction for himself. He posted on his Twitter account that the provincial government had dispatched medical, shelter and food supplies.

Several main roads to the affected area have been been made impassable by the rains, hampering the relief efforts.

President Felix Tshisekedi has declared a national day of mourning on Monday to honor the victims, and the central government is sending a crisis management team to South Kivu to support the provincial government.

Heavy rains in recent days have brought misery to thousands in East Africa, with parts of Uganda and Kenya also seeing heavy rainfall.

Flooding and landslides in Rwanda, which borders Congo, left 129 people dead earlier this week.

Local government official Bakenge told AP, “This is the fourth time that such damage has been caused by the same rivers. Not 10 years pass without them causing enormous damage.”

Thomas Bakenge, a regional government official gave the estimate after overseeing recovery efforts in the affected territory of Kalehe, calling the scale of destruction “enormous, beyond words … whole houses were carried away.” He said bodies were still being collected from the shores of the nearby Lake Kivu.

Two rivers broke their banks after the heavy rains which began on Thursday evening and there have been multiple landslides with scores of homes destroyed, according to Delphin Birimbi, a community leader in the region.

As bodies were pulled from the mud, some residents estimated that more than 75% of homes in the village of Nyamukubi have been carried away by the floods, along with school buildings and a health center.

Official Thomas Bakenge called for immediate assistance, saying “there is absolutely nothing left here. We urgently need help.”

Rescuers worked to find and save anyone who may be trapped under the rubble of their homes.

In a statement published Friday, the provincial government of South Kivu offered its sympathies to the families affected and said it was sending a delegation to the scene.

Heavy rains have brought misery to thousands in East Africa, with parts of Uganda and Kenya also seeing heavy rainfall.

Flooding and landslides in Rwanda, which borders Congo, left 129 people dead earlier this week.