World News in Brief: Sexual violence in DR Congo, deaths in Ukraine and Russia, crime in Southeast Asia

Independent UN human rights experts on Tuesday condemned the M23 armed group’s “reign of terror” over territory it controls in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), calling for an end to the Rwanda-backed group’s sexual torture and violence against civilians.

“Rapes, gang rapes, violent assaults and killings of civilians are a common feature of M23’s modus operandi,” the experts said in a press release. “While these crimes are not exclusive to M23, the number of individuals affected is staggering and must end.”

The most recent conflict in the eastern DRC began in 2021 when the Rwandan-backed and Tutsi-led M23 militia took up arms against the Congolese military. The fighting, which traces back to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, has already displaced more than eight million people during decades of conflict.

An April report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres found that cases of sexual violence perpetrated by M23 against civilians more than doubled between 2024 and 2025. This violence disproportionately impacts women and girls.

The armed group, whose stated goal is to protect the Tutsi population in the DRC, exercises control over the civilian population through arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, forced labour, arson, abduction, blackmail and forced armed recruitment.

UN reports show that M23 cites unlawful and arbitrary reasons for its treatment of civilians, including collaboration with the DRC’s armed forces, failure to comply with compulsory communal labour or a mere suspicion of criminal activity.

The UN experts noted that M23 holds those arrested in severely overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, where detainees face frequent beatings and are often deprived of food, water and medical care.

“The violence is unacceptable. It must end immediately and be thoroughly investigated so that those responsible are held accountable,” the Human Rights Council-appointed experts said.