Clashes between rival militia groups in eastern Congo since last week have killed nine combatants and reduced a hundred houses to smoldering ruins, aid officials have said.
The clashes erupted in Minembwe, about 200km southwest of the eastern city of Uvira, Major Gabriel de Brosses, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, said.
About 100 homes had also been burned in the violence, and cattle and goods had been looted, said Olivier Byabagabo, a pastor in Uvira who leads a local aid group that works in the region.
The fighting pits traditional militia known as the Mai Mai against dissident fighters loyal to dissident army Colonel Jules Mutebusi, whose rebel forces once briefly seized the eastern city of Bukavu in 2004.
De Brosses said six Mai Mai and three of the rival militiamen were killed.
It was not clear what sparked the fighting.
The mineral-rich eastern reaches of Congo, bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, are the most unstable in the country, with violence breaking out regularly that often pits rival militias against each other and leaves civilians dead.
UN peacekeepers helped end a wider 1998-2002 war in Congo that engulfed six neighbouring countries. A nearly 18,000-strong peacekeeping force currently in Congo is the UN's largest peacekeeping operation.