A/HRC/57/60 engagement with the UN and had to relocate. Names and additional details of those concerned are withheld due to fear of further reprisals. 42. On 17 July 2024, the Government responded to the note verbale sent in connection to the present report, requesting additional information to address the case. 7. Democratic Republic of the Congo 43. During the reporting period, the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) documented several incidents of reprisals for cooperation with the Mission described below. Incidents were attributed to State actors and an armed group in different locations in North Kivu Province, where large United Nations presence furthers collaboration with partners. However, cases in other provinces are likely under-reported, due to poor road and communication networks which prevent access and limit referral of cases. Names and details of those concerned are withheld due to fear of further reprisals. 44. Specifically, in September 2023, the coordinator of a human rights organization active on the protection of the rights of internally displaced persons and detainees was reportedly summoned to the office of a government administrative officer in Beni Territory, North Kivu Province, who accused the coordinator of disclosing secret information to the United Nations and hiding it from the authorities. The officer reportedly referred to the coordinator as a killer and a traitor and threatened him with arrest if collaboration with the United Nations continued. 45. In one instance, since May 2022, elements of the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) visited on several occasions the home of the head of a human rights organization in North Kivu province, looking for him. He had been sharing information with UNJHRO on the human rights situation in his locality. Over time, the pressure and threats against family members to disclose his whereabouts increased, and ultimately the UNJHRO helped him and his family to relocate within the country. However, the M23 continued to track him both in his new location in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and again when he eventually fled to a neighbouring country. In November 2023, after he had returned to the DRC, a group of armed persons believed to be members of the M23 broke into his house at night. They severely beat him, pointed guns to his head, and threatened to shoot him while demanding the passwords for his computers and telephones, which they seized. They ransacked his home and took money and other valuables. Since then, he and his family have been living under the temporary protection of humanitarian actors, in constant fear of harm. 46. In a separate incident, M23 elements began harassing a young journalist at a local radio station in Rutshuru Territory, North Kivu Province, who had regularly shared information on developments in his locality with the UNJHRO. M23 harassed him for suspected close ties with the DRC government and for sharing information on the M23 actions to United Nations “human rights”. In May 2023, M23 elements came looking for him at his house twice. He managed to escape and stayed in hiding for two months. Failing to find him, armed men looted his house and harassed his family. In July 2023, the UNJHRO helped him and his family to relocate to a different region. In December 2023, due to lack of employment in their new place of residence, his family returned to their area of origin. Since then, M23 elements have kept his home under surveillance and visited his house at night three times looking for him. 47. During the reporting period, UNJHRO also documented M23 rebel group targeting members of local human rights organizations, individual human rights defenders, journalists, and other individuals who the group suspected of sharing information with the government, the international community, including the United Nations, and the general public on the Movement’s human rights abuses, in the areas under M23 control, specifically in several localities of Rutshuru and Masisi Territories. The M23 intimidated and harassed many of the cited actors, and arrested, kidnapped, and detained several of them. Some were forcibly disappeared, and others were killed. About 60 of these fled from their homes. Names and details of those concerned are withheld due to fear of further reprisals. 24 GE.24-14259