The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has summarily executed children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The UN rights office warned the situation in eastern DRC was “deteriorating sharply, resulting in serious human rights violations and abuses”.

“Our office has confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week,” rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

“We are also aware that children were in possession of weapons,” she said.

She urged “Rwanda and M23 to ensure that human rights and international humanitarian law are respected”.

M23 fighters and Rwandan soldiers have seized Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces respectively.

In South Kivu, more than 150,000 people have been forced to flee, UN refugee agency UNHCR said.

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Shamdasani also said the situation was “very chaotic”, and the UN rights office was “receiving a lot of information… which we are not able to confirm or verify”.

It had, however, confirmed a case of three boys, thought to be aged between 11 and 15, who had been killed in Bukavu on Sunday “during an altercation with members of M23”.

The boys were allegedly wearing uniforms and carrying weapons found in an abandoned DRC army camp, firing shots and looting stores, she said.

“What appears to have happened is that they were asked to surrender their weapons and they refused to do so and they were killed,” she said.

The rights office had also documented cases of “ill treatment, conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, child and forced recruitment, intimidation and death threats”, she said.

Prison breaks from South Kivu’s Kabare and Bukavu jails on Friday had made matters worse.

She said the UN had received “reports that journalists, human rights defenders and members of civil society organisations have been threatened, and forced to leave”.

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