UN peacekeepers will be sent deeper into Congo's northeastern Ituri province to try to halt growing ethnic bloodshed.

At least 65 people, most of them children, were shot and hacked to death on Monday about 55 kilometres outside of Bunia, where peacekeepers are already in position.

The head of Congo's UN mission says the international organization's brigade will fan out to three or four locations outside Bunia. It will be the first time the troops are deployed beyond the town, though reconnaissance missions have been carried out.

Hema and Lendu tribes are responsible for a bloody conflict in the region that has claimed more than 50,000 lives in the last four years.