U.N. says Congo will need $2.25 billion to aid uprooted people in rebel-hit east

FILE PHOTO: The United Nations headquarters building is pictured with a UN logo in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The United Nations will need to mobilise a record $2.25 billion this year to address the mass displacement of people in east Democratic Republic of Congo following a major offensive by M23 rebels last year, the U.N. coordinator for the country, Bruno Lemarquis, said on Wednesday.

Decades of militia violence in Congo's vast mineral-rich east worsened last year after the Tutsi-led M23 staged a major come-back in North-Kivu province in March, uprooting more than 600,000 people, according to the U.N.