More than 80 civilians were killed in an attack by the Kodeko armed group on a group of villages in the east of the country earlier this week, the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) said.

MONUSCO said it deployed peacekeepers to respond to the attack as quickly as possible.

Kodeko is one of several armed groups competing for territory and resources in eastern Congo. It has regularly targeted camps for displaced people, which have expanded since the recent advance of the Rwandan-backed M23 movement.