The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has revealed in a new report that M23 rebels killed at least 140 people in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last month in one of the worst atrocities by the armed group since its resurgence in late 2021.
The killings took place despite a peace process, brokered by the US and Qatar, to end the conflict in the region.
Witnesses told the advocacy group that the Rwanda-backed rebels summarily executed local residents, including women and children, largely from the Hutu ethnic group in the Rutshuru area, near the Virunga National Park.
The M23 rebels has however, denied the allegations, accusing Human Rights Watch of falsifying its report and being an instrument of propaganda for the Democratic Republic of Congo government.
The alleged massacre appears to have taken place during an M23 campaign against an armed Hutu group, the FDLR, formed by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.
The Human Rights Watch report indicate that the total killings in July may exceed 300 people which corroborate with a similar findings by the UN earlier this month.
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Fighting between Democratic Republic of Congo government troops and the M23 escalated in January, when the rebels captured large parts of the mineral-rich Easttern territory, including the regional capital city of Goma where hundreds of people have been killed and thousands of civilians have been forced from their homes in the ongoing conflict.
The Human Rights Watch report released this week, indicate that the M23 rebel group used machetes and gunfire to attack people in at least 14 villages and farming areas near the Virunga National Park between 10th and 30th July.
A witness who asked not to be namex told reporters that the M23 rebel fighters believed to be backed by Rwanda government soldiers surrounded and blocked off all roads into the area to prevent people from leaving.
“We woke up on 11th July and the M23rebels were there in large numbers and they were already on our doorstep as they killed people with guns and machetes,” A man who ladt five members of his family in the attack in Katanga area said.
A woman who saw M23 rebel fighters kill her husband with a machete on 11th July said that M23 rebel fighters on that day rounded up about 70 women and children.
“They told us to sit on the edge of the riverbank, and then they started shooting at us and I survived after falling into the river without being shot,” A woman was quoted as saying.
According to the report another man said that he watched as the rebels killed his wife and four children aged nine months to 10 years from afar and locals said that M23 rebel fighters told them to immediately bury the bodies in the fields or leave them unburied, preventing families from organising funerals.
“M23 fighters also threw bodies, including of women and children, into the Rutshuru River,” the report added.
The AFC opposition alliance, which includes the M23 has since accused Human Rights Watch of failing to explore the possible involvement of other groups in a region that is a theatre of complex operations.
The rebel group rejected the Humqn Rights Watch report as based on no tangible evidence, only on hearsay, deceptively interpreted imagery and complicit silence regarding the crimes of the coalition forces.
However, Human Rights Watch said it analysed relevant videos and photographs, consulted with forensic pathologists and corroborated accounts using maps and satellite imagery and the report identified by name the M23 battalion and military commanders allegedly involved.
The report cited telephone interviews with 25 witnesses plus medical workers, military and UN personnel, the report said that members of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), were backing the M23 operation.
Earlier this month, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also reported that the Rwanda Defence Forces had supported the M23 rebel killings of at least 319 between 9th and 21st July in four villages in Rutshuru.
Hiwever, Rwanda angrily denied the UN accusations, calling them “gratuitous” and “sensational allegations,” saying they risked undermining the peace process, and claiming that an armed group opposed to the M23 carried out the killings and Rwanda said it had nothing to do with these alleged findings.
“The M23 is not Rwanda-controlled, and these questions should be raised with them,” Rwanda Government Spokesperson added.
Rwanda denies persistent and widespread allegations that it provides military support to the M23, which is largely made up of the Tutsi ethnic group that was targeted by Hutu militias in the genocide.
But Kigali continue to see Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as a security threat, primarily because of the continued existence of the armed Hutu group, the FDLR, which fights alongside the army.
The killings occur amid stalled regional and international peace efforts to end the prolonged deadly conflict, including an agreement between Rwanda and the DR Congo government with provisions for Kinshasa to “neutralise” the FDLR.
Separately in Qatar last month, the M23 rebel and the Democratic Republic of Congo government also signed a ceasefire deal, intended as a step towards a permanent peace.
But last week, as negotiations were set to resume, the M23 rebel side walked away from the peace talks and said that Kinshasa had failed to meet commitments outlined in the deal, although it has since announced it will send a technical team to Doha to discuss the practical arrangements for the truce, but the Congolese army has also accused the M23 of violating the ceasefire.
Human Rights Watch has recommended to the UN Security Council, the European Union and governments to condemn grave abuses witnessed in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, impose further sanctions on those responsible and press for the arrest and appropriate prosecution of commanders implicated in the conflict.
Additional Reporting from Associated Press.
