Civilians fleeing their residential area for fear of an advance by M23 rebels in the province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 9, 2023. DJAFFAR SABITI / REUTERS
Dozens of women were raped by M23 rebels in a series of attacks between November 21 and 30 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Amnesty International said on Friday.
Based on the testimonies of 35 victims and direct witnesses, the human rights organization denounces in a press release what it describes as “war crimes» and which could also constitute «crimes against humanity“.
Chilling testimonials
“At least 66 women and girls“were violated by”the M23 armed group, supported by Rwanda“, specifies the text. According to Amnesty International, the facts mainly took place in the commune of Kishishe, about 100 kilometers north of Goma, the capital of more than one million inhabitants of North Kivu today almost completely surrounded by the rebels.
The United Nations for its part indicated last week that Kishishe and its surroundings were the scene of attacks at the end of November where at least 171 people were killed and 27 women and girls raped by the M23 in retaliation for an offensive by armed groups. . “After taking control of Kishishe, M23 fighters went door to door, killing every adult male they found and subjecting dozens of women to rape, including gang rape“, details Amnesty.
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One of the rape victims told the NGO that she had “counted up to 80 bodies of men killed by M23 soldiersin a church. Chilling excerpts from victims’ testimonies are reproduced in the three-page text, such as that of Eugénie (first name changed): “They said we were all FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda). They separated us from the men and shot them, including my husband and my two sons. Three M23 soldiers then took me behind the church and took turns raping me. I thought I wouldn’t survive“.
The predominantly Tutsi M23 rebellion took up arms again in late 2021, after nearly a decade of exile in neighboring Rwanda and Uganda, with among their main demands the elimination of the FDLR, a group founded in Congo by former genocide leaders Tutsis in 1994 in Rwanda.
The DRC accuses its neighbor Rwanda of supporting these rebels, which is corroborated by experts from the UN, the United States and other Western countries, although Kigali denies it.