At least 30 people were killed in a weekend attack in the restive northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, local and UN sources said on Monday.

The jihadists of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) are suspected to have carried out the attack in the Ituri area on Saturday, they said.

Dieudonne Malangayi, acting chairman of the chiefdom of Walese Vonkutu, initially said 14 people died in the attack but told AFP on Monday that more bodies had since been discovered.

"The civilians who went to look for the bodies of the victims found 16 others in the bush, which makes 30 civilians massacred," said Malangayi.

A UN source confirmed that at least 30 people had died in the attack.

One civilian who helped look for bodies said the victims had mostly been attacked with machetes or shot.

The ADF, which the United States has deemed a terrorist group, is considered the deadliest of scores of armed militias that roam the mineral-rich eastern DR Congo.