Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said in press briefing that some 300,000 people, mainly women and children, were displaced in the aftermath of a wave of brutal attacks in June 2019 by various armed groups in the country's Ituri and North Kivu provinces.

 

Prior to this, he said, an estimated four million people, some 10 percent of the global population of internally displaced, were already displaced across DRC.

 

According to UNHCR spokesperson, five months on from June's attacks, killings, sexual violence and abductions persist amid continuing conflict.

 

"In October alone, UNHCR staff recorded at least 1,000 human rights violations in the two eastern provinces. Civilians live in fear of death and destruction," he noted.