Over 80,000 people displaced by clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are in urgent need of food, the UN said.
This was as fighters from the M23 rebel group advanced on Wednesday and were locked in heavy fighting with the army outside the region’s largest military base.
M23 fighters attack on the base in the town of Rumangabo happened after several days of fighting between the rebels and Congo’s army near the border with Rwanda.
26,000 people were forced to flee their homes since the fighting began on Sunday, the United Nations’ humanitarian agency, OCHA said.
Those displaced fled to improvised sites, churches, schools and to Uganda, OCHA said.
The M23 rebellion was an armed conflict in North Kivu that occurred between the March 23 Movement and government forces. The rebellion was part of continued fighting in the region after the formal end of the Second Congo War in 2003.
During a 2012-2013 insurgency, the M23 used the Rumangabo base as its headquarters.
Since their defeat in 2013, the rebel fighters have periodically returned from demobilisation camps in Rwanda and Uganda to stage attacks inside Congo.
