In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the M23 rebel group has condemned “genocide and targeted killings” against the Tutsi community by government forces and their allies in the east.
It claimed that the government’s coalition forces “attacked our positions in Bwiza and its surroundings on Tuesday, in total violation of the current ceasefire.”
The M23 claimed that government-allied forces had killed innocent civilians, destroyed their homes, looted and slaughtered their cattle, and that the ongoing attacks had displaced and injured many civilians.
In a statement, it claimed that “these targeted killings of Tutsis and those who have opposed the genocide ideology by the said DR Congo government’s coalition, while the international and national community remained quiet, take us back to the time before the genocide of 1994 committed against the Tutsi in Rwanda.”
The group has made it clear that it will not “stand by and watch” if civilians are massacred, and that it is “ready to intervene and end these awful massacres.”
The army has not commented on the charges, but the M23 was accused last week by the army of killing scores of innocent civilians in the eastern town of Kishishe, a claim that the M23 rejected.
The M23 released a statement after deciding to leave occupied territory under intense pressure from the government and the international community in response to resolutions reached by chiefs of state at a recent summit in Luanda, the capital of Angola.
The more than 50 armed factions from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that took part in the Nairobi peace negotiations this week said they had also decided to put down their guns.
