Rwanda-backed rebels killed over 140 civilians in eastern Congo, rights group says

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Rwanda-backed rebels killed astatine slightest 140 radical successful farming communities successful eastbound Congo successful July, a quality rights radical said successful a study Wednesday, describing the killings arsenic “summary executions.”

Human Rights Watch said 141 people, predominantly Hutus, were feared dormant oregon missing aft the attacks adjacent Virunga National Park successful North Kivu province, citing section experts and witnesser accounts.

It said the killings appeared to beryllium portion of a subject run by the M23 group, the astir salient of much than 100 equipped groups warring for power successful eastbound Congo, against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a mostly Hutu equipped group.

Nearly 2 cardinal Hutus from Rwanda fled to Congo aft the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed 800,000 Tutsi, mean Hutus and others. Rwandan authorities accused the Hutus who fled of participating successful the genocide, alleging that the Congolese service protected them.

“The M23 equipped group, which has Rwandan authorities backing, attacked implicit a twelve villages and farming areas successful July and committed dozens of summary executions of chiefly Hutu civilians,” said Clementine de Montjoye, elder researcher astatine Human Rights Watch.

Witnesses said M23 soldiers, accompanied by Rwandan soldiers who were identified by their accents, told them to “immediately hide the bodies successful the fields oregon permission them unburied, preventing families from organizing funerals,” the study said.

One pistillate described being marched successful a radical to a riverbank adjacent the municipality of Kafuru. The radical of astir 70 radical was lined up earlier the soldiers began shooting astatine them. 47 people, including children, who were killed were identified, the study added.

Willy Ngoma, subject spokesperson for M23, called the study “military propaganda.”

The study said the Rwandan subject and the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) were progressive successful the M23 operations, citing U.N. and subject sources and witnesser accounts. There was nary contiguous remark from the Rwandan government.

The reported killings could escalate tensions successful Congo's mineral-rich eastbound wherever antithetic partners person been racing to execute a imperishable ceasefire since warring betwixt the M23 and Congolese forces escalated successful January.

The U.N. has called the struggle “one of the astir protracted, complex, superior humanitarian crises connected Earth.”

M23 was antecedently accused of extrajudicial killings during their seizure of large cities successful the eastbound portion of the state successful May.

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