Human rights violations and summary executions are on the rise in eastern DRC

The UN peacekeeping agency MONUSCO said at a new conference in Kinshasa on Wednesday that 739 incidents of human rights violations were reported last month, up from 492 in July.

According to the assessment produced by the UN's Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in the DRC, at least 293 people were killed, including 63 women and 24 children.

In August, the unstable North Kivu and Ituri provinces accounted for 94% of the reported cases.

Nearly 55% of the instances involved "state agents," including the extrajudicial killings of at least 40 people.

Armed groups were accountable for the remaining 45 percent of reported atrocities, despite the fact that the number of deaths linked to them – at least 253 – was far greater.