Rwandan rebels attacked villagers in neighboring eastern Congo with machetes, spears and hammers on Sunday, killing 17, wounding 28 and taking up to a dozen hostages, a local rights worker said, citing survivors' accounts.

The attackers, who are based in Congo, descended on the village of Kanyola in the middle of the night, rights worker Constantin Charondagwa said by telephone from Bukavu, about 30 miles from the village. Charondagwa said he visited Kanyola and interviewed people who escaped the attack.

The motive for the reported attack was not immediately clear.

Rwandan rebels based in eastern Congo include members of Rwanda's former army and extremist Hutu militias, known as the Interahamwe, who led the 100-day genocide of more than a half-million people in Rwanda in 1994.

One key rebel group, the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, includes people accused of participating in the genocide, which targeted members of the Tutsi ethnic minority and political moderates from the Hutu majority.

The rebels have been based in eastern Congo after being chased out of their home country.

"The combatants belong to the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, as well as to other armed Rwandan groups," said Charondagwa, whose Civil Society of Sud-Kivu office in Bukavu coordinates local humanitarian groups' efforts.

The U.N. mission in Congo could not confirm the attack, but a spokesman said a team had been dispatched to the area. "By Monday, our team will reach the village to verify these reports," U.N. spokesman Maj. Gabriel de Brosses said.

In April, the Congolese army, assisted by the U.N. mission, launched an offensive to push back the Rwandan rebels in the east. At least one rebel base was destroyed.

The Civil Society office said the army did not have a strong presence in Kanyola.

AP