Federal health officials are monitoring the outbreak of a deadly and mysterious disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to UPI.

MONUSCO, the U.N. peacekeeping force in the DRC, said the reported killings were under investigation but remained unverified.

An unknown disease that poses a ‘significant public health threat’ has already killed more than 50 people. The disease started on January 21 in the village of Boloko, in the Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC ), after three children ate a dead bat, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa office.