HomeTop StoriesAccording to the UN, more than 100,000 people have been displaced in...

According to the UN, more than 100,000 people have been displaced in eastern Congo since the beginning of this year

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — More than 100,000 people in eastern Congo have been displaced by a new rebel offensive since the start of the year, according to a United Nations report released Friday.

M23 rebels captured the town of Masisi on Monday, sparking a mass exodus of people in the face of a new offensive by the rebel group, taking over two strategic towns in the east of the country in less than a week.

The new displaced people add to the 2.8 million people already displaced in North Kivu province, which is more than a third of the province’s population, according to the UN.

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M23, or the March 23 Movement, is a militant group made up of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army just over a decade ago. The group rose to prominence in 2012 when its fighters captured Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city on the border with Rwanda.

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M23 is one of more than a hundred armed groups fighting for territory in mineral-rich eastern Congo, near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has led to one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. All told, more than seven million people have been displaced.

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