According to authorities in the territory of Rutshuru, at least 11 men were discovered dead in eastern DR Congo on Sunday. These sources blamed M23 rebels for their deaths.
Under the condition of anonymity, more sources in Bukombo corroborated this death toll.
“I’m at the scene and there are 11 corpses of civilians in front of me, some shot dead, others killed with knives,” a resident told newsmen over the phone. “There are no fighters among them”, he said.
One civil society leader put the number at 12, saying the rebels had fought against “self-defence groups yesterday” and left “with people they forced to carry their luggage.
“When they got to Bukombo-centre, they killed them”.
The Tutsi-led M23 rebel group has seized swathes of territory and displaced about a million people in the region since re-emerging from dormancy in late 2021.
The March 23 Movement, often abbreviated as M23 and also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army is a rebel military group that is for the most part formed of ethnic Tutsi.
Based in eastern areas of the DRC, it operates mainly in the province of North Kivu. The M23 rebellion of 2012 to 2013 against the DRC government led to the displacement of large numbers of people.
On November 20, 2012, M23 took control of Goma, a provincial capital with a population of a million people, but it was requested to evacuate it by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region because the DRC government had finally agreed to negotiate. In late 2012, Congolese troops, along with UN troops, retook control of Goma, and M23 announced a ceasefire and said that it wanted to resume peace talks.
