The executions are said to have taken place early this week and the UN has also documented two cases of deadly bombings against residential areas housing internally displaced persons and "occupied schools and hospitals" and forced labor.
We have documented at least twelve extrajudicial executions carried out by M23, says Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at a press conference in Geneva.
Sexual violence, where Congolese soldiers are also suspected of being perpetrators, has also been documented and is being verified, according to the spokesperson.
In the capital of North Kivu province, Goma, which has largely been besieged by M23, they are now taking care of their dead. They are counted in hundreds.
Continuing to Kinshasa
The Rwanda-backed M23's dramatic incursion into the province on Sunday has triggered a military and diplomatic crisis. The rebels claim they are hunting for individuals linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda – and are not interested in the valuable mineral resources of Congo-Kinshasa. But exactly what M23's motives are is unclear.
We will continue the freedom march all the way to Kinshasa, said rebel leader Corneille Nangaa on Thursday.
The rebels are now reported to be moving south. In the two-million-strong city of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu, queues of volunteers are forming to join a militia supporting the army's fight against M23. Young men are training on the city's arenas.
Near important airfield
The defense line runs about four miles north of Bukavu, near a strategically important military airfield. Congo-Kinshasa's President Felix Tshisekedi has promised a powerful military response to M23's advance.
The UN and several individual countries are urging Rwanda to withdraw the rebels, and the UK has threatened to review its aid. But Rwanda's President Paul Kagame is rejecting allegations that his government supports M23.
M23 is not Rwandan – they are Congolese, he says.
The African cooperation organization SADC is holding an emergency summit on Friday due to the crisis, which has forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
