Backed by neighbouring Rwanda, the M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups fighting for control in Congo's mineral-rich east. (AP/File Photo)

An Islamic State-backed rebel group killed at least 17 people in an attack on a hospital in eastern Congo, authorities said Saturday.

The attack by the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, took place in the village of Byambwe, in the Lubero territory of North Kivu province on Friday night, Col. Alain Kiwewa, the local administrator, told The Associated Press.

“Women who were breastfeeding were brutally slaughtered and found with their throats slit in their hospital beds,” Kiwewa said, adding that 11 women were killed.

The rebels also attacked other villages, said Samuel Kakule Kagheni, a civil society leader in the Manzya area, which

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