The Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 has denied involvement in a series of massacres in eastern Congo which were detailed in a report published by a rights group Wednesday. Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesperson for the M23 military,

Despite a peace process, attacks were carried out in more than a dozen villages last month, Human Rights Watch says.

Rebels from M23, a rebel group backed by Rwanda, killed at least 140 people in July in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said. The resurgence of killings of mostly Hutu civilians in at least 14 villages and farming areas near Virunga National Park in eastern DRC comes as the United States and Qatar have been working to broker peace in the region.