Ugandan rebels have killed at least 537 people and kidnapped 408 others during raids on villages in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo since September, the UN has said.The rebel group, which is calling itself the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), is fleeing a multinational military offensive led by Uganda.
Ron Redmond, the spokesman of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said on Tuesday: "We are increasingly concerned about the humanitarian situation and continuing attacks by the LRA on the civilian population in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Orientale province.
"At least 104,000 people have also been forced to flee the violence which broke out last September in the region neighbouring southern Sudan and Uganda," Redmond said.
"Many of these internally displaced people are still hiding in the bush, particularly in areas around the town of Faradje which was heavily hit during the Christmas period."