A/HRC/45/49 Masisi and Beni territories, ongoing clashes between armed groups since the beginning of 2019 have led to a significant deterioration in the human rights situation. 18. The tenth Ebola virus disease epidemic that struck North Kivu between August 2018 and June 2020 was characterized by the stigmatization and threatening of ill persons and survivors. Moreover, before the World Health Organization declared the end of the epidemic, pressure groups organized demonstrations against what they perceived to be the artificial extension of the epidemic period for financial purposes. On 16 and 17 April 2020, demonstrations organized by the Véranda Mutsanga group in various neighbourhoods of the city of Beni led to arson attacks on health facilities. 19. The province of South Kivu is just as affected by human rights violations and abuses, with nearly 13 per cent of the cases recorded in embattled provinces. Between June 2019 and May 2020, the Joint Office documented 871 cases in that province, with 206 people killed, 660 victims of violations of the right to physical integrity, including 272 victims of sexual violence, and 770 victims of violations and abuses of the right to liberty and security of person. Mwenga, Fizi and Uvira territories, which are affected by intercommunal conflict, have seen most of the human rights abuses. In that area of South Kivu, the conflict has intensified since February 2020. Numerous attacks on camps for displaced persons and on villages in several communities, as well as the theft of livestock and crops, have led to population displacement. The Raia Mutomboki armed groups were particularly active in Shabunda territory. 20. The situation remains critical in the province of Ituri, where a rise in particularly cruel violence now affects more ethnic communities and a larger geographical area. Between 1 June 2019 and 31 May 2020, the Joint Office documented 643 human rights abuses committed by armed assailants in Djugu, Mahagi and Irumu territories, with at least 724 persons killed, 319 persons injured, 107 victims of sexual violence and 240 persons abducted. 21. In those same territories, members of the armed forces were responsible for 105 violations, involving at least 35 victims of extrajudicial execution, 20 injured persons, 65 victims of sexual violence and 31 victims of arbitrary arrest and/or unlawful detention. Officers of the Congolese national police, for their part, committed 17 violations involving at least 3 victims of extrajudicial execution, 18 injured persons, 4 victims of sexual violence and 1 abducted person. 22. The Province of Tanganyika saw a resurgence of inter-ethnic violence between the Twa and Bantu communities, with 431 human rights violations and abuses documented (compared with 341 in the previous reporting period). While State officials were responsible for nearly 62 per cent of those acts, Twa armed groups committed 20.4 per cent of them and various Mai-Mai groups 17.6 per cent. Kalemie and Nyunzu territories were the worst affected, with 55 and 42 per cent, respectively, of the human rights abuses attributable to Twa and Mai-Mai armed groups. The escape on 28 March 2020 of Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, chief of the Kata Katanga Mai-Mai, who had been under house arrest in Lubumbashi, raises concerns over the stability of the provinces of Tanganyika and Haut-Katanga. 23. In the Kasai region, despite a decrease in armed clashes, the number of documented violations and abuses remains high, with State agents being the main perpetrators (94 per cent of the total). The Kamuina Nsapu and Bana Mura militias remained active in Tshikapa and the territories of Kamonia, Luebo and Mweka, Kasai Province, and the city of Kananga and the territories of Demba and Kazunba, Kasai Central Province. The situation remains particularly critical in Kasai Province, where most violations documented by the Joint Office were concentrated. 24. Public consultations on the need for justice, reparation and the prevention of new conflicts in Kasai Central Province were held from 15 to 23 August 2019, at the instigation of the provincial government, with the technical and financial support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights under the Peace, Justice, Reconciliation and Reconstruction Project. The local population’s views on criminal justice, the quest for truth, reparations, guarantees of non-recurrence, memorialization and community reconciliation were thus gathered. The legislative process to adopt an edict on transitional justice mechanisms is under way. It should receive technical and financial support, as should the mechanisms to be established subsequently. GE.20-11014 5