In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials say suspected Islamist rebels killed

at these 38 people in an overnight attack in an eastern village.

It's the latest in a spike of violent clashes that began in February.

Since 1996, fighting in the region has led to about 6 million deaths.

Ali Rogan has more.

Two prominent rebel factions in the region are the March 23 movement or M23 and the so-called

Allied Democratic Forces or ADF.

Neighbouring Rwanda has been accused of supporting M23, which the government denies,

and the ADF is a militia group affiliated with the Islamic State and are blamed for the latest attack.

They are just two of the more than 120 groups operating in the region

vying for interests including control over the country's rich reserves of metals and

rare minerals. Civilians have been caught in the middle and the

civilians have been caught in the middle and the Congolese government has often failed to protect them.

According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced 5.7 million people

across the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri.

Jeda-Doyan McKenna is the CEO of Mercy Corps, a nonprofit group providing humanitarian aid on the

ground.

Jeda, thank you so much for being here. This is an extremely

complex conflict, but what are some of the root causes behind the violence that

we're seeing now? The root causes, you mentioned some of them, this control, this is

a vastly mineral-rich country in a lot of ways so control of

those illegal mining inter-ethnic groups but also just lots of proxy wars between other

...