Report
August 20, 2025

DR Congo: M23 Mass Killings Near Virunga National Park

The Rwandan-controlled M23 armed group summarily executed over 140 civilians, in at least 14 villages and farming areas in July 2025 near Virunga National Park, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

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August 19, 2025 | News Release

Brazil: Protect Small-Scale Farmers’ Land Rights in the Amazon

Brazil’s agrarian federal agency should reject a proposal to downsize a sustainable settlement in a deforested area of the Amazon region, Human Rights Watch said today. If approved, the reduction would open the door to legitimizing illegal land occupations inside the settlement that are driving deforestation and violence against small-scale farmers who are its legitimate residents.

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Children and women run among a cloud of dust at the village of El Gel, in Ethiopia’s Somali region, on January 12, 2023. The last five rainy seasons since the end of 2020 have failed, triggering the worst drought in four decades in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.

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