About 100 people were slaughtered last week in a fresh massacre in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, blamed by the government on Uganda rebels, lawmakers told Agence France-Presse on Monday.

The carnage took place on Thursday near Beni in North Kivu province, where mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels have been blamed for killing more than 200 civilians in gruesome machete attacks since October, and where the U.N. wants "negative forces" to be neutralized.

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo arrested 200 suspects in connection with massacres in the troubled east of the country that left over 100 dead, the U.N. said Wednesday.

The suspects taken into custody for the killings which began in October in the Beni area included Ugandan Muslim rebels, who have widely been blamed for the massacres.