“UNHCR and government partners are running 15 trucks non-stop all day transferring refugees and their possessions to the facility,” Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told journalists in Geneva.

The Uganda Red Cross Society, which runs the Bundibugyo transit centre, estimates that more than 66,000 people have fled the fighting last week in DRC’s North Kivu province between government troops and the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan rebel group.UNHCR and government partners are running 15 trucks non-stop all day transferring refugees and their possessions to the facility.

Many walked 15 kilometres to school sites across the border. According to UNHCR, all the refugees have been relocated from four of the schools. Some 5,000 refugees remain at the main site, Butongo Primary School.

One refugee at Butongo, Marinyese Nyota, 35, told UNHCR that she had fled from the North Kivu town of Bayumba last week with her husband and five children. They spent three nights in the bush and then three nights in Butongo. “We ran without anything. When the rebels arrived, no one took anything, not even a hoe, not even bedding, not anything. You are only saving your body to get here.”

The Bundibugyo transit centre to which the refugees are being transported has 229 tents for individual families and 13 large communal shelters. The transit centre has a maximum capacity of 25,000 people, even with a new 4.5-acre land allocation by the Ugandan Government.

Some refugees are setting up their own makeshift homes out of blankets they were given at the site and using mosquito nets they brought with them as “roofing,” Mr. Edwards said.

Two communal kitchens serve three hot meals a day with food provided by the UN World Food Programme (WFP). A third kitchen is under construction.

A sufficient amount of water tanks are arriving to the transit site, but UNHCR expressed concern about water supplies as the number of refugees in the centre grows. In addition, nearly 80 individual pit latrines have been dug.

“Our main worry at the moment is sanitation and hygiene facilities for the refugees,” UNHCR Field Assistant Andrew Lubwama said. He added that if the rains come early, there might be an increased threat of disease outbreaks.

Children between the ages of nine months and 15 years are being vaccinated against measles and receiving Vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets. Medical teams are also identifying sick children and looking out for anyone whose nutrition might have suffered from going a week or more without a proper meal during their flight or stay at the border, Mr. Edwards added.

“The transit centre is intended to be the refugees’ home for no more than three weeks,” he said.

He stressed that while the centre is considered safe, UNHCR and the Government are looking into other possibilities for relocation to places where people could get protection, plots of land to farm for themselves, as well as shelter materials and food rations.

The UN and its partners are also working to get the classrooms that were used for shelter back in shape as soon as possible so that children can resume their studies.

Meanwhile, UNHCR staff said they saw hundreds of refugees returning to eastern DRC, carrying belongings, including ducks and goats. Many other refugees are living with friends and relatives on the Ugandan side. It is not clear how many remain along the border, Mr. Edwards said.

According to the agency, many people prefer to remain close to the border so that it will be easy to check on their homes and crops during daylight hours.

In the hills, they lack access to potable water, proper shelter, security and sufficient food and it is also difficult to access them, UNHCR said.

The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) expressed “deep concern” about the latest bout of fighting which broke out after a significant group of the M23 attacked the national forces (FARDC) on 14 July in Mutaho, eight kilometres northwest of Goma, in eastern DRC. According to the Mission, heavy artillery and a battle tank were used in the attack.

“Any attempt by the M23 to advance toward Goma will be considered a direct threat to civilians,” the Mission warned. It also noted that the UN blue helmets stand ready to take any necessary measures, including the use of lethal force, in order to protect civilians.

The acting Special Representative of the Secretary General in the country, Moustapha Soumaré, urged restraint to avoid a further escalation of the situation.

“I call on all to abide by the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework Agreement and to allow the political process towards peace to move forward,” Soumaré said, referring to the UN-brokered accord adopted in February with the support of 11 nations and four international organizations (11+4), with the aim of ending the cycles of conflict and crisis in the eastern DRC and to build peace in the long-troubled Great Lakes region.

“I urge all signatories of the PSC Framework to exercise their influence in order to avoid an escalation of the situation,” he added.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Mary Robinson, the UN Special Envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes Region, along with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, visited the DRC in May to bolster support for the PSC Framework which Ms. Robinson dubbed a “framework for hope.”

Last month, there was talk of a possible resumption of peace talks between the Government of the DRC and the M23. At that time, Mrs. Robinson had urged both sides to engage in earnest discussion under the auspices of the Chairperson of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Mr. Robinson was convened in Burundi last week a conference to help develop a road map for women’s engagement in efforts to bring peace to Africa’s long-trouble Great Lakes countries.

Since March, tensions in the region have been heightened, leading to the Security Council to authorize in March the deployment of an intervention brigade within MONUSCO to carry out targeted offensive operations, with or without FARDC, against armed groups that threaten peace in eastern DRC.

“A genuine and collaborative political effort must now take place at the regional level,” Ban said in his remarks at the 11+4 regional oversight meeting of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the Region, which was held on the sidelines of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“While the situation remains volatile, we have an historic opportunity to end the suffering and stabilize the region, which holds such a great potential for human development.”

Βan emphasized that while the signing of the UN-brokered Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the Region was “a milestone” in efforts to launch a comprehensive peace process, countries now face a test of implementation that will be met “only if all the signatory countries work together to end the political impasse and generate momentum towards human security and economic development.”

The Framework, which was signed in February by 11 African leaders including Rwanda and Uganda, aims to end the cycles of conflict and crisis in the eastern DRC – where, in the most recent hostilities, rebels from the 23 March Movement (M23) have been clashing with the DRC national armed forces (FARDC) – and to build peace in the wider region.

Ban reiterated the support of the international community, including the four organizations that were witnesses to the signing of the Framework – the African Union, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, the Southern African Development Community and the UN.

In addition, Ban said that his Special Representative to the region, Mary Robinson, is working closely with all signatories and is spearheading the effort to define benchmarks on regional commitments.

Ban also commended DRC President Joseph Kabila’s commitment to implement significant reforms in the country, including the establishment of a national oversight mechanism.

On the margins of the Summit, The Secretary-General has been meeting with various African leaders.

Ban met separately with the President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, South African President Jacob Zuma, Senegalese President Macky Sall, President of Zambia Michael Chilufya Sata, and Vice-President of Angola Manuel Domingos Vicente, with whom he discussed regional developments.

In his meeting with the President of the Republic of the Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, Mr. Ban praised the Head of State for his efforts to address the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR), in his capacity as Mediator in the crisis there, and for hosting the first meeting of the International Contact Group on the CAR.

Ban also met with the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, with whom he discussed the persistent violence in the northern part of the country and the state of emergency declared in three states. Mr. Ban said he hoped that the state of emergency would be lifted quickly and that the safety and welfare of civilians will be protected.

The report, which details victim and eyewitness accounts of mass rape, killings, arbitrary executions and other gross violations of human rights, was authored by the UN Joint Human Rights Office comprised of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the DRC.

While the report also cites M23 rebels for committing atrocities, it notes that the serious rights violations committed by FARDC soldiers, in particular, were “perpetrated in a systematic manner and with extreme violence” and may constitute international crimes under human rights law, as well as crimes under Congolese criminal law.

“Those responsible for such crimes must know that they will be prosecuted,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement, calling the sexual violence outlined in the report “horrifying” in scale and systematic nature.

The joint investigation attributes poor discipline among soldiers and officers, as well as improper training and inadequate vetting mechanisms for what happened.

The investigation also expresses serous concern about the failure of the Congolese army to protect civilians, which it says stems from a lack of vetting procedures which allowed former rebels to integrate into the national army without verification of the human rights records.

Most of the cases documented happened on 22 and 23 November 2012 in and around the town of Minova in South Kivu and followed a similar modus operandi: “FARDC soldiers entered houses, usually in groups of three to six, and, after threatening the inhabitants, looted whatever they could find. One or two of the soldiers would leave with the looted goods and at least one would stand guard as the remaining FARDC soldiers raped women and girls in the house.”

“Victims were threatened with death if they shouted; some were raped at gunpoint. Most victims were raped by more than one soldier. Almost all cases of rape documented by the UNJHRO were accompanied by death threats and additional acts of physical violence,” the report continued.

During the period of their occupation of the towns of Goma and Sake in North Kivu, M23 combatants also perpetrated serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights violations, according to the report. The UN investigation documented at least 59 cases of sexual violence, 11 arbitrary executions, recruitment of children, forced labour, cruel inhuman and degrading treatment and looting by M23 combatants.

Noting that the DRC authorities have made efforts to investigate the violations, Ms. Pillay urged DRC authorities do more to ensure justice for the victims and re-establish the confidence of the civilian population in the Congolese justice system.

Authorities suspended for further investigation the commanding officers of two of the battalions implicated in the rapes after MONUSCO sent a letter to FARDC’s chief of staff requesting the formal suspension of support to these units.

Since then, the Government said it had launched investigations and recorded some 400 testimonies from victims, witnesses and suspects. It added that several arrests had been made as an interim internal disciplinary measure, and a number of officers allegedly involved in these acts had been suspended and put at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor for the purposes of the investigation.

Among these officers are the commanding officers and deputy commanding officers of the two main battalions suspected of committing these acts, as well as officers of eight other units.

The head of MONUSCO and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the DRC, Roger Meece welcomed the measures taken by the authorities and affirmed UN’s continued support for an independent, credible judicial investigation and the Congolese armed forces.

Mr. Meece added that future efforts to reform the security sector must include a systematic verification of the human rights records of combatants and their commanders in order for the Congolese army to fully ensure the protection of civilians.

On 30 March, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, signed an agreement with Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon to prevent sexual violence.

The Joint Communiqué lists commitments made by the Government, including fighting impunity for crimes of sexual violence, accelerating security sector reform efforts, creating vetting mechanisms when integrating former combatants into the national army, ensuring a better control of mineral resources, and greater support for services to survivors.

According to WFP Spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs, deteriorating humanitarian conditions and ongoing attacks from Mai Mai fighters have forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes since April.

“Inside this triangle, because of attacks of armed groups, the population have left and they have taken refuge in the three cities,” she said, adding that the constant attacks, lootings, rapes had first sent the population fleeing into the bush. They then took refuge in the cities, where the World Food Programme is assisting them with food rations and humanitarian assistance.

There are currently 354,000 internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in Katanga province, according to UN estimates, a significant increase from 55,400 in January 2012.

Despite insecurity and poor road conditions WFP has managed to reach some 250,000 people displaced from the Triangle with one-month rations during the past 12 months. The agency has also reached approximately 66,255 people in Pweto.

In Maniema food insecurity is still very high, Ms. Byrs said, with at least 42 per cent of households vulnerable to it. The causes for this include a lack of infrastructure, low agricultural productivity, and insecurity in the neighbouring provinces of North and South Kivu. In addition, the isolation of the region negatively affected food prices and household food access.

Byrs said WFP is supporting more than three million beneficiaries in DRC, and is seeking $28.9 million to continue its operations in the country to secure the food resources over the next six months.

According to the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MONUSCO), fighting between the DRC armed forces (FARDC) and the Alliance des Patriotes pour un Congo Libre et Souverain (APCLS) on Friday killed some 11 APCLS combatants and injured one FARDC soldier.

Since fighting first began in February, tens of civilians have been killed, including a humanitarian worker, hundreds have been wounded and thousands have been displaced. Thousands who have fled the violence have sought refuge around the UN peacekeeping base in Kitchanga.

MONUSCO said that following the fighting on Friday, the mission has provided protection to about 1,500 civilians.

“The situation is reported to be calm at present but the UN mission continues to monitor the situation and patrol the area,” UN spokesperson Eduardo del Buey told reporters in New York.

MONUSCO is tasked with supporting the Congolese authorities in their stabilization and peace consolidation efforts, including assisting with the holding of elections, the monitoring of human rights violations and support for Government action against armed groups operating in the east of the country.

The UN Security Council last week strengthened MONUSCO’s capacity by authorizing the deployment of an intervention brigade that will carry out targeted offensive operations, with or without the Congolese national army, against armed groups that threaten peace in the eastern part of DRC.

According to information from the UN mission, known by its French acronym MONUSCO, 245 Mayi-Mayi Kata Katanga combatants entered the UN compound on 23 March where they sought refuge following an earlier attack.

“The Mayi-Mayi elements arrived at the MONUSCO compound at around 13:30 local time, on Saturday, after being repelled by Government troops, following a surprise attack against Government institutions in Lubumbashi,” said the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in New York.

Following negotiations mediated by MONUSCO between the provincial authorities and the Mayi-Mayi, the Combatants were transported by the Congolese authorities to Kinshasa on two flights, the UN said.

In a news release, MONUSCO welcomed the “peaceful surrender” of the combatants.

Among them, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had identified and separated 40 children to be demobilized and sent back to their families.

Local non-governmental organizations estimated that at least 35 people, including civilians, were killed in the fighting in the city. An additional 16 combatants were injured and transferred to local hospitals for attention.

The UN Security Council tasked MONUSCO with supporting the Congolese authorities in their stabilization and peace consolidation efforts, including assisting with the holding of elections, the monitoring of human rights violations and support for Government action against armed groups operating in the east of the country. A possible revision of the mandate is currently under review.

The new HDI figures, launched today in Mexico City by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), combines measures of life expectancy, literacy, school enrollment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. This year 187 countries and territories were measured.

Norway retained its top position from last year, ahead of Australia and the US, while the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan round out the top 10, in that order.

However, when the HDI is adjusted for internal inequalities in health, education and income, the standings of some countries fall significantly. The US falls from 3 to 16 and the Republic of Korea descends from 12 to 28. By contrast, Sweden rises from the seventh to the fourth spot.

“National averages hide large variation in human experiences, and wide disparities remain within countries of both the North and the South,” the report says.

The report, entitled The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World, emphasizes the unprecedented growth of developing countries, which is propelling millions out of poverty and reshaping the global system.

According to the report, leading economies in the South such as China, India and Brazil will be the main drivers of economic growth and societal change for the first time in centuries. This growth, however, is not limited to these three countries, and the report spotlights more than 40 other countries that have made greater human development gains in recent decades than what was predicted.

The report, which is the result of investigations carried out by the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC, found that in 54 civilians died in detention centres in 2010, and 56 in 2011. By comparison, 101 deaths were recorded in 2012.

Out of the 101 deaths, 24 were caused by torture or ill-treatment, a finding that the report describes as “extremely worrying,” according to a news release. The other deaths were caused by the poor conditions in the centres, including overcrowding, malnutrition, limited access to health care and lack of resources.

“Someone deprived of their liberty, should never be allowed to die of hunger or ill-treatment,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. “It is the responsibility of the State to keep prisoners alive and in good health, in accordance with international standards. The very serious and persistent problems surrounding detention conditions in the DRC need to be addressed without further delay.”

While recognizing the direct impact that the lack of resources and equipment in the penitentiary services has on the number of deaths in detention, the report placed much of the blame on the rampant corruption and lack of transparency affecting the management of prisons in the DRC.

The Special Representative of the Secretary General, Roger Meece, said the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the country (MONUSCO) would welcome practical measures taken by the Government to remedy the situation, including the suspension of high-ranking officials suspected of corruption.

“The international community should support the Government’s efforts to reform the prison system and improve conditions of detention,” Mr. Meece said.

The report reminds the Government of its obligations to protect and take care of people in detention, and points out that it is the State’s responsibility to ensure that their basic needs are satisfied, particularly those that, if neglected, might result in loss of life.

Between them, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA – are responsible for over half of the almost US$100 billion total annual global trade in conventional weapons.

The same five states will be pivotal to finalizing an effective Arms Trade Treaty with strong human rights protections at the conference taking place at the UN from 18-28 March.

All this week in the run-up to that historic meeting, Amnesty International activists and supporters are holding a “Global Week of Action” to call on world leaders to adopt an effective Arms Trade Treaty with strong human rights protections.

“It’s clear that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are responsible for the lion’s share of arms deals across borders – and so collectively they must shoulder the greatest burden in bringing the poorly regulated global arms trade in check,” said Helen Hughes, researcher on arms transfers at Amnesty International.

The 12-page briefing, Major powers fuelling atrocities, includes examples of arms transfers from each of the five countries to states around the world, where they are likely to be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

According to the briefing, the USA – by far the world’s largest arms trader – frequently exports “non-standard ammunition” to its friends and allies. Rather than being US-made, these arms and equipment are sourced from abroad – typically from the former Soviet Union and Eastern European companies.

It adds, that a  September 2012 contract between the US military and Yemen lists 1 million rounds of sniper rifle ammunition as well as thousands of RPG rockets and mortar bombs. The USA has become Yemen’s largest supplier of military equipment, and in 2011 delivered arms worth US$4.8 million.

The USA is among countries that have tried to weaken the draft text of the Arms Trade Treaty by seeking to exclude certain types of weapons and ammunition from its scope, Amnesty says.

Amnesty International is pressing for the final treaty to cover all types of weapons and munitions for use in military and internal security operations, as well as related equipment, parts and technology.

“No opt-outs should be allowed, and to be effective, the treaty must have a ‘Golden Rule’ requiring states to halt arms exports when there is a substantial risk the arms will be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law,” said Brian Wood, Amnesty International’s Head of Arms Control and Human Rights.

“Also, the treaty should completely ban the transfer of arms that would aid or assist in crimes under international law, including extra-judicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances.”

State-owned companies in China account for the bulk of the country’s exports of conventional arms. In recent years they have shipped to countries including Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, the briefing says.

France has sold vehicles that can be militarized (“véhicules civils militarisables”) to Sudan, where they have been used by government-backed Janjaweed militia who have committed gross human rights violations in the country’s Darfur region, according to the briefing.

Syria historically received the majority of its weapons and munitions from the Soviet Union, and has continued to do so from Russia, the world’s second-largest arms trader by value, according to Amnesty.

Since 2011 when protesters were being killed across the country for calling for freedoms and even after the situation escalated into an internal armed conflict between government and opposition forces in July 2012, Russia and China have blocked efforts at the UN to impose an arms embargo and sanctions on Syria.  Amnesty International has documented a range of Russian and Soviet-era arms and military equipment – ranging from aircraft to cluster bombs – being used in Syria.

“While it won’t be a panacea for all of the world’s misuse of arms, if we get a strong Arms Trade Treaty it will be an important step towards achieving much more security and human rights protection for billions of people who today live in fear,” said Wood.