The UN has issued an ethnic cleansing warning after it recorded more than 250 'extrajudicial or targeted killings' of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including dozens of children.

Victims face being chopped up, disembowelled or burned alive in the conflict-hit Kasai region, according to refugees who had fled to neighbouring Angola.

The Kasai conflict erupted last September after the death in clashes of a tribal chieftain, known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against the authority of President Joseph Kabila's regime in Kinshasa and its local representatives.

The UN has issued an ethnic cleansing warnings after it recorded more than 250 'extrajudicial or targeted killings' of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pictured, victims display their scars and missing limbs as a result of the conflict

The killing sparked violence that has escalated, including gross alleged violations such as rapes, torture and the use of child soldiers.

The refugees gave harrowing accounts of the violence in the central region, which the UN warned had taken on 'an increasing and disturbing ethnic dimension.'

Victims recounted mutilations, including of a seven-year-old boy whose fingers were cut off, and an attack on a hospital in the village of Cinq where 90 people were killed, some because they were too injured to escape a raging fire.

Aside from government troops, the UN blamed a reportedly state-backed militia called the Bana Mura as well as the anti-government Kamuina Nsapu militia for a range of atrocities.

Victims face being chopped up, disembowelled or burned alive in the conflict-hit Kasai region, according to refugees who had fled to neighbouring Angola. Pictured, a wounded child displaying a scar on her back

'Survivors have spoken of hearing the screams of people being burned alive, of seeing loved ones chased and cut down, of themselves fleeing in terror', the United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

HORRIFIC TALES OF ABUSE IN DRC The UN report said the Bana Mura militia were often accompanied by Congolese soldiers, who were responsible for atrocities including firing rockets into a church in the village of Djiboko on 10 June, killing 60-90 people attending a religious service. In one attack on a village, the Bana Mura shot, chopped up and disembowelled people. Many were beheaded or burned alive, including the patients in a health centre, the report said. A woman still bleeding from childbirth was raped with the barrel of a rifle, it said. After a Bana Mura attack on another village, one witness claimed to have buried 45 decapitated bodies. Advertisement

A team of investigators has confirmed 251 executions between March 12 and June 19, the UN report said.

'These included 62 children, of which 30 were aged under eight'.

Regarding the children murdered, the UN explained that seven were killed by members of the army or the national intelligence service, while six died at the hands of the rebel group Kamuina Nsapu.

The Bana Mura militia members were blamed for the deaths of 49 minors.

Scott Campbell, the head of the western and central Africa division at the rights office, said the new UN report was merely 'a snapshot' of the wider conflict and atrocities had likely continued over the past six weeks.

The violence in the Kasai region 'could amount to crimes against humanity', Campbell added, underscoring growing concern that the conflict was 'tipping towards to ethnic cleansing'.

In less than a year, the violence has claimed more than 3,300 lives, according to a tally by the influential Roman Catholic Church, and displaced 1.4 million people.

People stand next to an empty boat as the traffic on the Kasai river has been slowed down due to insecurity in Democratic Republic of Congo (pictured in July)

Around 80 mass graves have been uncovered in the region.

The president's mandate expired last December but under a transition deal, he was allowed to remain in office until elections that are supposed to be held in late 2017.

Kabila has so far failed to set a date for the polls, heightening tensions across the country.

The UN rights chief has blasted Kabila's government for not mounting serious investigations into the Kasai crisis.

He successfully lobbied the Human Rights Council to set up an international investigation, although it is not clear if Congolese authorities will grant the probe access to the Kasai region.

The UN rights chief has blasted Kabila's government for not mounting serious investigations into the Kasai crisis. Pictured, people stand near the Kasai river

The report said that one militia group, the Kamuina Nsapu, has been fighting Congo's government for a year, and has summarily executed at least 79 people.

'A great majority of the Kamuina Nsapu elements are children (girls and boys), some as young as seven,' it said.

The refugees were convinced that the Kamuina Nsapu had magical powers, and militia members believed their magic - including young girls drinking the blood of decapitated victims - would make them invincible, the report said.

Around 80 mass graves have been uncovered in the region. Pictured, people walk across the Kasai Bridge linking the two sides of Tshikapa, Democratic Republic of Congo

'This generalised belief about the powers of Kamuina Nsapu and the fear it triggers among segments of the population in the Kasais may partly explain why a poorly-armed militia, composed to a large extent of children, has been able to resist offensives by a trained national army for over a year.'

There were no corroborated cases of Kamuina Nsapu committing large-scale killings based on ethnic identity, the report said.

Typically its members would execute a government official and decapitate them, removing the head to put it in 'sacred fire'.