While the figures on the deadly events in Kishishe at the end of November continue to be debated, witnesses and survivors say that the M23 rebels seemed to want to kill all the men in this area in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The armed group is accused of murder, looting and rape by the Congolese government and the UN, killing 131 people according to Monusco, 272 according to the government, eight according to M23. Second part of our investigation.
With our special correspondent in Goma, Coralie Pierret
It is discreetly sheltered in an office by the roadside that Eli (all names of witnesses have been changed)tells how he hid for several days to escape the M23. This man in his thirties was afraid that he would be confused with an armed fighter. Because a little before their arrival in Kishishe, the rebels of the M23 indeed faced local self-defense militias, including the Nyatura or Maimai, as well as the FDLR, an armed group of Rwandan origin settled in the area : “ I noticed that the M23 was mainly looking for young men after these clashes. They considered all the young men to be either Maimai, Nyatura or FDLR. That’s what scared me, so I hid. »
Eli finally fled the day before the Kishishe drama. Unlike Richard, another survivor, who assisted him to the events of November 29. In revenge or retaliation, elements he describes as belonging to the M23 attacked civilians, he says:
” They didn’t come to the house I was hiding in. But they broke down the doors of the houses to see if anyone was hiding inside. They were looking for the men and chasing them. When I came out of my hiding place, I saw friends who had been finished off. For example, the nurse at the health center, he had been shot, three shots. »
The exact number of deaths among combatants or among civilians is not yet known. No independent investigator was able to visit the scene.
► Read also : In the DRC, a look back at the few days preceding the Kishishe tragedy [2/4]