The Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group is committing “grave abuses” against civilians in territories it controls in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, an Amnesty International investigation has found, as per Al Jazeera.
The rights organisation says the acts—ranging from torture and enforced disappearances to extrajudicial killings—violate international humanitarian law and could constitute war crimes.
Between February and April this year, Amnesty researchers interviewed 18 people who said they were detained by M23 fighters in the captured cities of Goma (North Kivu) and Bukavu (South Kivu). Most had been accused—without evidence—of aiding the Congolese army. Former prisoners described:
- Cells so overcrowded and unsanitary that detainees went without adequate food, water or medical care.
- Beatings with wooden clubs, electric cables and engine belts.
- At least three killings in custody, including two men bludgeoned with hammers and one shot dead on the spot.
Relatives who tried to locate missing family members were frequently told the detainees were not being held, behaviour Amnesty says amounts to enforced disappearance.
M23’s latest offensive began in January, when the rebels seized Goma, and intensified in February with the fall of Bukavu. The United Nations estimates the broader conflict in mineral-rich eastern Congo now involves roughly 100 armed factions and has displaced more than seven million people—100 000 of them so far this year.
Both the Congolese government and UN experts say about 4 000 Rwandan troops have bolstered M23 operations, an allegation Kigali denies. Amnesty’s regional director Tigere Chagutah urged “regional and international actors” to press Rwanda to withdraw its support.
Despite a pledge last month by Kinshasa and M23 leaders to draft a peace accord, fighting has continued and the rebels have threatened to advance toward the capital, Kinshasa, more than 1 600 km (1 000 miles) to the west. Previous attempts at mediation by the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community have yet to secure a lasting truce.
