GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP)— Nearly a million people within the Democratic Republic of Congo have been displaced from their homes this year, the UN human rights chief said Tuesday.

Volker Turk said the situation in the country was deteriorating by the day, and voiced alarm at the growing numbers on death row after the DRC lifted its de facto moratorium on the death penalty.

Turk, who visited the DRC in April, told the UN Human Rights Council that the central African country was gripped by an “explosive mix of escalating violence, regional and international interests, exploitative corporations and weak rule of law”.

He said the number of victims of human rights violations was continuing to rise, with 85 per cent of abuses committed in the conflict-affected east in the 12 months to June 1. Armed groups were thought responsible for 61 per cent of those violations.

Some 700 new victims of sexual violence were recorded in that period.

“Armed groups abduct, hold captive and subject women and girls to sexual slavery. Many have been killed after being raped. All cases are certainly not being reported. This is atrocious,” Turk said.

“According to humanitarian sources, 940,000 more people have been internally displaced this year, bringing the total number of internally displaced people to more than 6.4 million,” he said.

He added that 23.4 million people were food insecure, meaning they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food.

Turk said he remained concerned by the lifting in March of the de facto moratorium on the death penalty in place since 2003, calling it a “major step backwards”.

Since then, 128 men have been sentenced to death by military courts, he said.

“I urge the authorities to ensure that these sentences are not carried out,” Turk said.

The UN high commissioner for human rights said the DRC was blessed with exceptional natural resources, including minerals and the world’s second-biggest rainforest.

However, he said “the illegal exploitation and illicit trade of the DRC’s natural resources, with the complicity of companies… as well as the proliferation and trafficking of arms”, was driving the current violence.

“This situation also pushes the population into poverty. The DRC is one of the five poorest nations in the world… this situation is unacceptable,” said Turk.

He said this exploitation was part of people’s daily lives around the world, with mobile phones containing minerals from the eastern DRC.

In elections on Wednesday at the UN General Assembly in New York, the DRC is among the five candidates for the five African seats on the Human Rights Council for a three-year term starting next year.