(MENAFN- IANS) Kinshasa, June 23 (IANS) More than 136,000 people have fled escalating violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since January, seeking refuge in neighbouring Burundi and Uganda, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.

Uganda has received nearly 67,000 new arrivals from the eastern DRC, which now constitutes "one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies," while Burundi has taken in over 70,000, most of whom are women and children, according to UNICEF.

Many of the new refugees are in urgent need of food, clean water, medical care, and protection, UNICEF said in a situation report released Monday, warning that transit centres in both countries are severely overstretched, Xinhua news agency reported.

The situation is deteriorating as the rainy season raises the risk of flooding, disease outbreaks, and further displacement. UNICEF highlighted critical health concerns, including high rates of malnutrition, cholera, and measles among children.

UNICEF is appealing for 22 million US dollars to scale up life-saving support, stressing that without additional funding, its ability to provide essential services will be severely constrained.

Since January, security conditions in the eastern DRC have sharply deteriorated, driven by a resurgence in fighting involving the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group.

The M23 has seized several strategic towns, including Goma and Bukavu, leading to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians and deepening an already dire humanitarian crisis.

The eastern DRC has been mired in decades of conflict, particularly offensives by the M23, a rebellion Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting. Rwanda, for its part, denies any ties to the rebel group, instead accusing the Congolese army of collaborating with remnants of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a group implicated in the 1994 genocide.

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