UNITED NATIONS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- UN peacekeepers are patrolling to protect some of the 150,000 displaced people fleeing fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a UN spokesman said on Monday.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, reported heavy fighting and a series of clashes over the weekend between the M23 armed group and the Congolese armed forces south of Kanyabayonga in North Kivu's Rutshuru territory, said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"The fighting triggered displacement of civilians towards Kayna, Miriki and Kirumba, with some reaching Lubero and Butembo," Haq told reporters in a regular briefing. "In response, peacekeepers, in coordination with the Congolese armed forces, deployed patrols around Kanyabayonga to assist some of the 150,000 men, women and children displaced in recent days."

He said the patrols were providing medical care and escorting people to safer areas, adding that the mission was maintaining its presence there.

The spokesman said that MONUSCO is monitoring the heavy fighting that was also reported over the past few days near Sake.

It's a key crossroads town on National Route 2 between Goma in North Kivu, on the border with Rwanda, and one of the DRC's significant cities, Kisangani, capital of neighboring Tshopo province. Enditem

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