Goma, DR Congo
Monday May 06, 2024
“The civilian population of North Kivu province has witnessed the worst humanitarian violations for more than two years in this bloody attrition,” said Angรจle #Dikongue-Atangana, representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in the DRC.
At least 12 people were killed and 30 wounded, mainly women and children, after the bombing of three camps for displaced people in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the #UN announced this Friday, March 03.
Bombs fell on three IDP sites in the Lac Vert, Lushagala and Mugunga districts of Goma, capital of the eastern province of North Kivu.
According to eyewitness accounts, “bombs” fell in the morning on displaced persons’ huts on either side of the road leading from #Goma to Sakรฉ, a town considered a strategic lock some 20 km from the provincial capital.
Supported by units of the Rwandan army, the M23 (for “March 23rd Movement”) rebels took up arms again at the end of 2021 after several years of dormancy, and have seized large swathes of territory in North Kivu, going so far as to encircle Goma almost entirely.
The city is home to over a million inhabitants and almost a million displaced persons, who have arrived in successive waves since the start of the rebel offensive.
On the origin of the bombardments, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya accused “the Rwandan army and its M23 terrorist supporters” of being responsible on X. “Horror in its gravest form! A bomb on civilians, deaths, children! A new war crime!” he wrote.
This week, the M23 took control of the mining town of Rubaya, from which coltan, a strategic mineral for the electronics industry, is extracted.
The #DRC authorities accuse #Rwanda of wanting to lay their hands on the riches of Eastern Congo, which #Kigali denies.
So far, diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis have come to nothing.
DRC President Fรฉlix Tshisekedi, on a visit to Europe, decided to cut short his European trip in the wake of the tragedy.
Humaniterre
Sources : L’expression, AFP
Photo AFP
Video : AFP – Swahili language
