KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Ongoing violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has prompted the United Nations to send peacekeepers to the region.
U.N. officials say the recent violence from the militant Lord's Resistance Army in the DR Congo's eastern provinces of Ituri and Orientale is an escalating threat to the civilian populations in the region. The United Nations announced a joint operation with soldiers from the DR Congo in an initiative to quell the violence, the United Nations reported.
Officials say the LRA, a militant rebel group from Uganda, has attacked villages in the eastern DR Congo. The violence has spawned similar attacks from the rebel Ituri Patriotic Front, and the Mayi-Mayi rebels in North Kivu have resumed recruiting soldiers to increase their presence.
Despite the peace accords at the DR Congo Kivus conference in January, officials say the growing activity by militant rebels in the region could become a destabilizing force in an already fragile security situation. "Eastern DR Congo continues to be plagued by serious human rights abuses," the release said.
