M23 rebels executes over 130 civilians, says UN

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08th Dec, 2022. 11:21 pm
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M23 rebels killed 131 civilians in two DRC communities.
At least 22 women and five girls were raped, a UN report says.
Investigators say M23 was attacked in retaliation.

M23 rebel group attacked in November in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 131 civilians there, according to a UN probe.

In two villages, Kishishe and Bambo, in the Rutsuhuru district of the eastern North Kivu province, according to the UN assessment, a massacre took occurred.

According to investigators, the assault looked to be retaliation for a recent government onslaught against the rebels.

M23 disputed the massacre, attributing only eight of the dead to “stray shots.”

But the UN’s Monusco peacekeeping mission in the country said 102 men, 17 women and 12 children were “arbitrarily executed” by the rebel group “as part of reprisals against the civilian population”.

At least 22 women and five girls were also raped, the report said

“This violence was carried out as part of a campaign of murders, rapes, kidnappings and looting against two villages in the Rutshuru territory as reprisals for the clashes between the M23” and other armed groups, including the FDLR, the statement said, adding that the true number of killed could be even higher.

Furthermore, it said that M23 militants buried the victims’ remains in “what may be an attempt to obliterate evidence.”

Over 300 civilians were reportedly killed in the strike, which happened between November 29 and 30, according to the government at first. However, given that the area was occupied by M23, its spokesman Patrick Muyaya acknowledged on Monday that it was challenging to get a precise number.

While protests have been organized in the capital Kinshasa and Goma, the largest city in North Kivu, Congolese officials have labelled the killings as war crimes and urged for more inquiry.

While 52 victims and direct witnesses who fled the attack were interrogated in the nearby town of Rwindi, roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, investigators claimed they were unable to enter the villages where the killing took place.

The UN delegation was informed by witnesses that the rebel group’s members knocked down doors, shot citizens, looted goods, and burned out residents of their homes.

“MONUSCO condemns in the strongest terms the unspeakable violence against civilians and calls for unrestricted access to the scene and the victims for emergency humanitarian assistance,” the investigators said.

An M23 spokesperson rejected the UN’s findings and insisted that it had “asked that there be investigations together with us in Kishishe but the UN never came”.

“The UN is under pressure from the government to come up with a figure, even if it is false,” spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said.

A decade ago, the M23 organization was established. It claims to be fighting a protracted war against the federal government and defending the rights of ethnic Tutsis living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) against Hutu militias.

It resumed fighting last year after going inactive for a while, conducting an offensive against the Congolese army in the eastern DRC.

Following skirmishes with the FDLR militia, which includes some of the ethnic Hutu commanders of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda who fled across the border into what is now DR Congo, atrocities took place in Kishishe and Bambo.

The M23 has meanwhile accused pro-government forces of “genocide and targeted killings” against the Tutsi community. It said its positions in Bwiza were attacked on Tuesday, despite the current ceasefire agreement.

The M23 has said that it is prepared to leave portions of the land it governs. Despite not attending the peace talks, it made the news on Tuesday after they ended in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

As recently confirmed by UN experts, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi has accused neighboring Rwanda of attempting to destabilize the country by arming the rebels. However, the Rwandan government has refuted this.

The eastern DR Congo, which is rich in minerals and has been torn apart by conflict for about three decades, is home to more than 100 distinct armed factions.

This year, a taskforce organized by the East African Community (EAC) dispatched troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in an effort to disarm the rebels and restore peace to the region.

M23 rebels executes over 130 civilians, says UN

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