UN reports 120 unexplained deaths in northeast Congo

A peacekeeper serving in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and a Congolese soldier stand guard as residents gather following demonstrations in Beni in North Kivu province, Congo on October 23, 2014. /REUTERS

Authorities in northeastern Congo have reported the unexplained deaths of more than 120 internally displaced people, 93 of them under 15 years of age, in an area bordering Uganda in March and April, a U.N. humanitarian report said on Friday.

The deceased often showed symptoms of anaemia and fever. They were displaced at Kandoyi, 350 km north of Bunia in Ituri province, which had taken in over 4,000 people uprooted from Djugu territory since mid-February, the report said.

Congo is also suffering from widespread malnutrition and a Ebola outbreak has been reported in another part of the country, around the town of Bikoro in the northwest.