Geneva – The United Nations alerted on Friday in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo when the armed group of the M23 pushed deeper into the country and warned of summarizing facilities and widespread rape. The capture of the group of Goma, the capital of the province of North Kivu, was a dramatic escalation in a region at the beginning of the week in which decades of conflicts with several armed groups were involved.
The UN on Thursday said that “credible reports are deeply concerned” that the M23 rebels supported by the Rwanda to Bukavu to south of the province of South Kivu in South Kivu.
Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN Rights Office, said that bombs have structured at least two locations in the inside (IDPS) that “cause civilian victims” since the beginning of the crisis.
“We also documented a summary execution of at least 12 people up to M23 between January 26th and 28th,” he told reporters in Geneva.
Str/AFP/Getty
In areas under M23 control in South Kivu like Minova, he said that the group had “occupied schools and hospitals, forced them from camp and exposed the civilian population for forced compulsory military work and forced labor”.
The legal office, he said, had documented “cases of conflict-related sexual violence by the army and the Allied Wazalendo fighters in Kalehe Territory.
“We review that 52 women were raped by Congolese troops in South Kivu, including alleged reports on rape of gangs,” he said.
Regardless of this, he pointed out reports from DRC officials who pointed out that at least 165 women were raped by male inmates when more than 4,000 prisoners broke out from Gomas Muzenze on January 27th when the M23 attacked the city started.
“Conflict-related sexual violence has been a horrific feature of armed conflicts in the Eastern DRC for decades,” said Laurence.
Efnan Ipsir/Anadolu/General
Volker Turk, head of the UN rights, is “particularly concerned that this recent escalation further deepens the risk of conflict-related sexual violence,” he added.
Laurence warned that the “widespread spread of weapons in Goma” tightens these risks “.
He also asked examinations to “put the perpetrators in court” and to ensure responsibility.
Ruth Maclean, head of the West Africa office for the New York Times, announced CBS News this week that the increase in violence in Goma was of particular importance, since people from the surrounding landscape have been poured into the city for months. to look for a break from the fight. Many of the displaced persons, said Maclean, lived outdoors and left them exposed to increased risk.
The UN, many western governments and the DRC accuse the Rwanda government to support M23 in order to control and take advantage of the large mineral resources of their much larger neighbor to escalate a crisis that has been playing in several international borders for many years.
