While the rebels of the M23 and the Rwandan troops continue their offensive in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN is worried about the abuses committed in the region. Meeting in an extraordinary session, the UN Rights Council must decide on Friday, February 7, whether it launches an international mission responsible for examining these facts of violence.
“If nothing is done, the worst is perhaps yet to come for the inhabitants of the East, but also beyond the DRC,” alerted the UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, before the Council, claiming that the risk of climbing violence in the region “has never been so high”. Kinshasa asked for this extraordinary meeting, with the support of nearly 30 of the 47 member countries of the Council, including Belgium and France, to examine the crisis in the east of the country, where the M23 (“Movement of March 23”) , supported by Rwanda, took control of the city of Goma last week and continues its offensive to the capital of South Kivu, Bukavu.
Progression of rebels to the east
“Today the international community regrets not having intervened in 1994 to stop the genocide [NDLR : rwandais]. The DRC would like to challenge this international community to say, beware, the same president Kagame, whose people have been the victim of a genocide, is doing the same, “said Julien Paluku, former governor of North Kivu and Current Minister of Foreign Trade, during a point with the press in Geneva on Thursday.
After having taken up, after a lightning offensive, of the capital of the province of North Kivu, the armed group and the Rwandan troops made Congolese forces retreat after clashes about forty kilometers from the locality of Kavumu, which houses Bukavu airport, according to security and humanitarian sources. The M23 had unilaterally decreed a humanitarian ceasefire from Tuesday and assured that they do not want to “take control” from Bukavu “or other localities”. But as early as Wednesday, the armed armed group and its Rwandan allies launched a new offensive in the neighboring province of South Kivu.
3,000 killed since January 26
“Since January 26, nearly 3,000 people have been killed and 2,880 injured. The real figures are probably much higher,” said Volker Türk. “My team is verifying multiple allegations of rape, collective rape, and sexual slavery through combat areas,” he said, saying to himself “very concerned about the proliferation of weapons and The high risk of recruitment and forced conscription of children “.
In addition, three local employees in the Swiss NGO Entraide Protestant Switzerland were killed on Wednesday, February 5, in an attack in the East. The three collaborators “were attacked and fatally injured during a humanitarian mission in the territory of Rutshuru, North Kivu,” said the NGO, specifying that it suspended all its activities in North Kivu “until ‘to new order “.
In addition to three years of conflict, the Congolese army, deemed to be poorly trained and undermined by corruption, has continued to retreat in the east of the country. More than 500,000 people have been moved since the beginning of January. “Slee your arms, stop the escalation,” urged UN secretary general Antonio Guterres on Thursday.