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.
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.