Nearly 200 people have been killed and 40,000 displaced since January following an "alarming increase" in attacks by the ADF armed group in northeastern DR Congo, the United Nations said Friday.

"Since January, attacks blamed on the armed group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have killed nearly 200 people, injured dozens of others, and displaced an estimated 40,000 people in DRC's Beni Territory in North Kivu province as well as nearby villages in Ituri province," UN Refugee Agency spokesman Babar Baloch told reporters in Geneva.