Farmers struggle to revive rebel-held fields

FARMERS in a breadbasket town in eastern Congo who previously fled heavy fighting are facing new challenges as they return to tend fields now under rebel control, a phenomenon playing out across the war-hit region.

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The unprecedented advance by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, part of a decades-long conflict rooted in the Rwandan genocide, has forced 1.2 million people from their homes in North and South Kivu provinces since January, according to the International Organization for Migration.

During the same period, some 1.8million people have returned to homes they had earlier vacated, the UN agency says.