Editor's note: Some may find the imagery below to be disturbing.
Throughout October, the death toll in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been steadily increasing. Rebel groups have carried out a series of seemingly arbitrary killings and kidnappings against civilians, murdering men, women and children with machetes, batons and axes. The attacks have left at least 100 dead in the past month, Amnesty International said on Friday.
One armed group being credited with most of the violence is the Ugandan-based Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which has been hiding out in the Congolese forest. The most recent attack on Thursday night claimed the lives of 14 civilians. Locals reported that groups of men entered villages with child soldiers as young as 7 years old, then ordered the children to kill civilians.
Despite the scale of the killings, the rebels' violence has gone largely underreported thus far. Below, the photos from the past month in the DRC tell a story of violence and despair, more violence and more despair, and grief.