‘Trail of war crimes’ left by DRC rebel group as recent attacks leave 300,000 displaced

Distress and despair at the Bushangara camp for internally displaced persons near Goma, eastern DRC, this week. More than 800,000 have been driven from their homes in the past year. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

More than 300,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have had to abandon their homes because of fighting between the M23 rebel group and the government last month.

According to the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, more than 800,000 people have now been displaced by the conflict since last March, and there is a humanitarian crisis that regional and international powers have allowed to fester.