Volker Turk says his office has ‘confirmed’ cases of rebels killing and recruiting children in eastern DRC. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Tuesday accused Rwanda-backed rebels, who seized a second major city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,

The U.N. human rights chief accused Rwanda-backed rebels who seized a second major city in eastern Congo of killing children and attacking hospitals and warehouses storing humanitarian aid. Volker Türk said in a statement Tuesday that his office “confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week.

The M23 armed group is advancing on strategic zones in the eastern DRC after taking two key cities, Goma and Bukavu, according to the United Nations on Wednesday. U.N. Security Council members met on Wednesday in hopes of averting the widening of conflict into a regional war.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) strongly condemned the looting of its warehouses in Bukavu, South Kivu, amid escalating violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

This insecurity extends to Goma itself, where there have been reports of crime and targeted violence, including home invasions and kidnappings. The UN peacekeeping mission for DRC, MONUSCO, has described the security situation in areas seized by M23 rebels as “unstable and highly unpredictable.

Rwanda-backed rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have advanced southward, reaching Burundi’s border and bringing the central African region to the brink of war, the United Nations said.

The M23 armed group has committed "summary executions" of children in Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the United Nations on Tuesday. The U.N. human rights office warned that the situation in eastern DRC was "deteriorating sharply.

Burundi is withdrawing its forces from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where they had been fighting against M23 rebels, four sources said on Tuesday, in a further blow to Congo's army as it struggles to halt a rebel advance.

Boat traffic returned to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Lake Kivu on Tuesday as ports re-opened in two cities which have fallen to M23 rebels, a development the United Nations said could facilitate access to humanitarian aid after weeks of fighting and looting.

Burundi has "accelerated" the withdrawal of some troops from DR Congo, a senior military source told AFP Thursday, as the UN warned the small Great Lakes nation was seeing its

Three children were executed by the Rwanda-backed M23 after they donned weapons and uniforms abandoned by the Congolese army in the eastern city of Bukavu, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday ().

The UN human rights chief accused Rwanda-backed rebels who seized a second major city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of killing children and attacking hospitals and warehouses storing humanitarian aid.