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According to the UN Joint Human Rights Office, 293 civilians were killed in August, including 63 women and 24 children.
The United Nations said summary killings in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) increased in August, pushed by armed groups but also by security forces.
At a new conference in the DRC capital Kinshasa on Wednesday, the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO said 739 cases of human rights violations were recorded during the month. last, against 492 in July.
These resulted in the deaths of at least 293 civilians, including 63 women and 24 children, according to estimates compiled by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in the DRC.
Ninety-four percent of the cases documented in August were in the troubled provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.
These provinces have been subjected since May to extraordinary “state of siege” measures aimed at suppressing the armed groups that have roamed the region for more than a quarter of a century.
“State agents” accounted for almost 55% of cases, including extrajudicial killings of at least 40 civilians.
Armed groups are responsible for the remaining 45% of recorded abuses, although the number of murders attributed to them – at least 253 – is much higher.
The UNJHRO was created in 2008 to monitor human rights violations, especially for women, children and vulnerable people.
Its leader, Abdoul Aziz Thioye, told reporters that the “state of siege”, under which high-ranking civilian posts were taken over by the military or police, had allowed “some improvements in the security situation” but “many challenges remain”.
In particular, he expressed his concern for the districts of Irumu and Djugu, which were targeted by the armed group of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
“A new trend” has emerged with the long-standing armed group, which exacerbated old conflicts between ethnic communities by teaming up with one group against the other, Thioye said.
When the armed forces attack the ADF, the group responds by dispersing into small units and expanding into a larger area, he said.
“The threat is very complex,” he said.
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