Human Rights Watch has published a report warning that civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are being abused by every side in the ongoing conflict, timed to coincide with a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis held Wednesday in New York. The report focuses on South Kivu (a province in eastern DRC that has seen intensifying fighting in recent weeks), particularly the Hauts-Plateaux region, where researcher Clémentine de Montjoye says civilians are "caught between a rock and a hard place." The Twirwaneho militia, allied with the M23 rebel group, has been forcibly recruiting civilians and blocking them from fleeing Minembwe, while the Wazalendo armed groups, allied with the Congolese army, have erected checkpoints, harassed residents, and held individuals in informal detention sites — prompting HRW to call on all parties to guarantee humanitarian access and uphold basic principles of international humanitarian law.