7,000 killed since January in fighting in DRC, says Congo prime minister

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) -Some 7,000 people have died since January in fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the prime minister of the DRC told a high-level meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

Some 450,0000 people are without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed, Judith Suminwa Tuluka added.

The M23’s advance is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in eastern Congo.

Rwanda rejects allegations from Congo, the United Nations and Western powers that it supports M23 with arms and troops.

The prime minister urged the world to act and to impose “dissuasive sanctions” amid mass displacements and summary executions.

“It is impossible to describe the screams and cries of millions of victims of this conflict”, she added.

In the opening remarks at the 58th UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, UN chief Antonio Guterres said that human rights around the world are being “suffocated” and referred to horrifying human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Miranda Murray)