GENEVA (AP) Rapes, lootings and killings by Congolese military forces and rebels is on the rise in eastern Congo, the United Nations said Wednesday.
Armed men have been running rampant in the volatile south Kivu region, where Congo's armed forces are preparing an offensive against rebel fighters accused of taking part in neighboring Rwanda's 1994 genocide, U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said.
"Rape is increasing in an absolutely dramatic manner," Byrs said.
She said provincial authorities registered 463 rapes during the first three months of this year, more than half the total for all of last year.
The situation worsened with the deployment of Congolese armed forces, "which commit rapes and lootings in areas of transit as well as in their zones of deployment," Byrs said.
Soldiers have been pillaging, seizing harvests and food and destroying houses, she said.
Many people are hiding in the forests during the day to escape the soldiers' violence, Byrs said.
"People have been killed with machetes, axes and knives, or burned alive."
More than 1,100 houses in three villages have been burned by rebels since mid-March, Byrs said.
Since March about 120,000 people have fled fighting and rebel reprisals, she added.
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