Goma, DR Congo

Seven villagers have been killed in Virunga Park, where they had gone to make charcoal, in an area of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo beset by the M23 rebellion, local sources have revealed.
The victims, all men, came from the village of Karambi, in Rushuru territory, some 30 km north of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.
“We heard they had been tied up and killed,” a local resident told AFP by telephone from Goma.
“They were killed on Wednesday April 10 with machetes, their bodies were recovered today (Friday April 12),” said a local official. “They were from our area, including Eric, Claude, Toto and others”, he added. They were between 20 and 30 years old.
According to the official, for lack of any other means of subsistence, these men used to go into the park to make charcoal, known as “makala”, which they sold in Goma.
The perpetrators of these murders have not been formally identified, but local residents accuse the M23, a rebel movement which, backed by units of the Rwandan army, has seized large swathes of the province over the past two years, notably in the Rutshuru territory.

According to them, the M23 (“March 23rd Movement”) prohibits the inhabitants of areas under its control from entering the park on the grounds that militiamen, with whom they can be confused, have their rear bases there.
Virunga Park, Africa’s oldest nature reserve, was created in 1925 and is renowned for its wildlife, notably mountain gorillas, and its grandiose landscapes. It is also at the heart of the conflicts that have been tearing eastern Congo apart for 30 years.

Humaniterre with AFP