Nearly 80,000 fleeing the conflict ravaging the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since January have found refuge in neighbouring countries, the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday.Around 61,000 of those sought shelter in Burundi, which has taken the bulk of refugees hoping to escape the fighting between the Congolese government and the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group, the UNHCR added.With Rwanda’s support, the M23 has seized swathes of the DRC’s mineral-rich east in recent months, displacing hundreds of thousands and triggering what the UNHCR calls “one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises”. For the past four weeks 414,000 Congolese have been on the move in the DRC’s North and South Kivu provinces, after the M23 ordered people in camps for internally displaced people to return to their hometowns, the UNHCR added.“Near the frontlines, physical violence and human rights abuses remain rampant, as is the looting and destruction of civilian homes and businesses,” the UNHCR statement said.The refugee agency reported an average of 60 physical abuses a day across the first two weeks of February, or 895 in total. Rwanda denies providing the M23 with military support.But a UN experts’ report found that it maintained 4,000 troops in the eastern DRC as well as de facto control of the armed group.The report said Rwanda was using the M23 to help secure control of the DRC’s vast mineral wealth, helping it to profit from its rich veins of gold and other minerals.
