Close to 128,000 people have been displaced due to recent fresh fighting that broke out between the DR Congo Armed Forces (FARDC) and the M23 rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement released on Wednesday in Kinshasa.

According to OCHA, over 81,000 people in North-Kivu province have been receiving daily food rations from the World Food Program (WFP) for the last three days

On November 26, over 13,000 households in the same province received household items from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), under the auspices of a program dubbed Rapid Response to Population Movement (RRMP).

Elsewhere in the neighbouring South-Kivu province, humanitarian response was disrupted when some humanitarian actors had to be evacuated from Minova region due to security fears. The FARDC officers occupied five primary schools and are using desks as firewood, hence compromising learning for about 5,000 pupils.

However, some humanitarian organizations in Bukavu, South- Kivu's provincial headquarters, have stocked up foodstuffs as they anticipate an eventual influx of people fleeing from North-Kivu province.

A source at the Minova health center confirmed that at least 22 rape cases were perpetrated by men in military uniform and the victims were treated for Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP).

WHO is currently taking care of over 200 people who were injured during the fighting at health centers in North-Kivu and South-Kivu provinces. Endi

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