More than 900 people have been killed in the past two weeks amid intense fighting between M23 rebels and government forces in Goma, a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to a statement released late Monday by the World Health Organization, approximately 2,880 injured individuals have been admitted to various health facilities in Goma since January 26.

Last week, the M23 armed group, backed by Rwandan troops, seized Goma’s airport as its fighters swept through the city, the regional capital of North Kivu, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The rebels have intensified attacks in eastern DRC, claiming control over Goma and establishing checkpoints, severely restricting humanitarian access.

With Goma under their control, the rebels pushed towards Bukavu, another major city in eastern DRC. Previously, the group had declared its intention to advance across the country toward the national capital, Kinshasa. However, in a recent statement, M23 rebels denied plans to capture Bukavu.

“It must be made clear that we have no intention of capturing Bukavu or other areas. However, we reiterate our commitment to protecting and defending the civilian population and our positions,” M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka stated.

Meanwhile, Rwanda-backed forces in eastern DRC announced on Tuesday that they would pause their advance for humanitarian reasons.

The Alliance Fleuve Congo rebel coalition declared a unilateral ceasefire starting Tuesday, a decision made in response to growing humanitarian concerns.

The rebels’ statement, posted on X (formerly Twitter), read:

“The Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC/M23) informs the public that, in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the regime in Kinshasa, it declares a ceasefire starting February 4, 2025, for humanitarian reasons.”

Despite the ceasefire declaration, there has been no immediate response from the DRC government in Kinshasa, and it remains unclear whether the Congolese military will honor the truce. Over the past three years, multiple ceasefires and truces have been declared, only to be systematically broken.

Before the ceasefire announcement, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported treating over 600 wounded individuals since the start of January, nearly half of whom were civilians, including women and children.

Meanwhile, the WHO has warned of a heightened risk of disease outbreaks, including mpox, cholera, and measles, as displaced populations struggle to access medical care.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the top U.N. human rights body and will not resume funding for the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees.

The U.S. left the Geneva-based Human Rights Council last year, and it stopped funding the agency assisting Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, after Israel accused it of harboring Hamas militants who participated in the surprise Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel, which UNRWA denies.

Trump’s announcement came on the day he met with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country has long accused both the rights body and UNRWA of bias against Israel and antisemitism.

Trump’s executive orders also call for a review of American involvement in the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, and a review of U.S. funding for the United Nations in light of “the wild disparities in levels of funding among different countries.”

The United States, with the world’s largest economy, pays 22% of the U.N.’s regular operating budget, with China the second-largest contributor.

“I’ve always felt that the U.N. has tremendous potential,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s not living up to that potential right now. … They’ve got to get their act together.”

He said the U.N. needs “to be fair to countries that deserve fairness,” adding that there are some countries, which he didn’t name, that are “outliers, that are very bad and they’re being almost preferred.”

Before Trump’s announcement, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated the Human Rights Council’s importance and UNRWA’s work in delivering “critical services to Palestinians.”

Trump also pulled the U.S. out of the Human Rights Council in June 2018. His ambassador to the U.N. at the time, Nikki Haley, accused the council of “chronic bias against Israel” and pointed to what she said were human rights abusers among its members.

President Joe Biden renewed support for the Human Rights Council, and the U.S. won a seat on the 47-nation body in October 2021. But the Biden administration announced in late September that the United States would not seek a second consecutive term.

Trump’s order on Tuesday has little concrete effect because the United States is already not a council member, said council spokesperson Pascal Sim. But like all other U.N. member countries, the U.S. automatically has informal observer status and will still have a seat in the council’s ornate round chamber at the U.N. complex in Geneva.

UNRWA was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1949 to provide assistance for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment, as well as for their descendants. It provides aid, education, health care and other services to some 2.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, UNRWA ran schools for Gaza’s 650,000 children as well as health facilities, and helped deliver humanitarian aid. It has continued to provide health care and been key to the delivery of food and other aid to Palestinians during the war.

The first Trump administration suspended funding to UNRWA in 2018, but Biden restored it. The U.S. had been the biggest donor to the agency, providing it with $343 million in 2022 and $422 million in 2023.

For years, Israel has accused UNRWA of anti-Israeli bias in its education materials, which the agency denies.

Israel alleged that 19 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza participated in the Hamas attacks. They were terminated pending a U.N. investigation, which found nine may have been involved.

In response, 18 governments froze funding to the agency, but all have since restored support except the United States. Legislation ratifying the U.S. decision halted any American funding to UNRWA until March 2025, and Trump’s action Tuesday means it will not be restored.

The South African government has given Taiwan March deadline to relocate the island’s de facto embassy outside of the capital city Pretoria.

The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said this, blaming Chinese pressure for the move.

South Africa severed official diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997 and only maintains formal and very close relations with China, which views the democratically governed island as Chinese territory with no right to the trappings of a state.

In a statement, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said South Africa’s government had sent a letter in January demanding the de facto Taiwanese embassy leave Pretoria before the end of March and “even be renamed as a trade office”.

China’s foreign ministry said South Africa was a “good friend and partner” of China, and the country was doing exactly what it should when it comes to upholding the “one China principle” which states Taiwan is part of China.

“Taiwan independence does not enjoy popular support, and will fail,” the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

South Africa made a request last year for what is called the Taipei Liaison Office to leave Pretoria.

A spokesperson for the South Africa’s foreign ministry told Reuters “our department is coordinating with the Taipei liaison office regarding administrative matters related to accurately representing its diplomatic classification in South Africa.

China is South Africa’s largest trading partner globally and one with which it is looking to expand cooperation in areas such as renewable energy.

Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says it has a right to forge ties with other countries.

Taiwan only has formal diplomatic ties with 12 countries, and in Africa it only has a single ally left, Eswatini, which is almost surrounded by South Africa.