Three mass graves have been discovered in an eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said.
The area was formerly controlled by a rebel warlord that has been the scene of recent clashes.
Maj Gabriel De Brosses, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in the DRC, said the graves were found on Monday in Rubare, a village about 40 miles north of the regional capital, Goma. Few details were available.
De Brosses did not know how many bodies had been found or who killed the victims.
Rubare was controlled by fighters loyal to former army Gen. Laurent Nkunda until earlier this month, when clashes broke out in the region between Nkunda’s men and the army. Nkunda left the army several years ago and now commands thousands of his own combatants in the area
Michel Bonnardeaux, a spokesman for the UN mission in the DRC, said the graves were found by residents, who reported them to UN officials.
The region has been the scene of fighting between the army and militias loyal to Nkunda, who commands thousands of combatants in the area. Clashes eased over the last week, but the area remains tense.
The UN food agency said it had delivered emergency food rations to about 35,000 people at a camp at Mugunga, just north of Goma.
But “poor security has severely limited access beyond Mugunga to the worst-affected areas,” including parts of Masisi district, where “at least 7,000 people are believed to be living in the bush in urgent need of food,” the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the latest round of violence, bringing the total number of displaced in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu from years of conflict to nearly 1 million, WFP said.
