The Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 has denied involvement in a series of massacres in eastern Congo detailed in a Human Rights Watch report published on Wednesday. The report accuses the group of killing more than 140 civilians as part of a military campaign against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group made up mostly of ethnic Hutu fighters.
Lawrence Kanyuka, a spokesperson for M23's military wing, dismissed the report as “fake and a falsification of reality” and accused the rights group of spreading “extremist propaganda”. In a separate statement, M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa said the report was intended to influence the United Nations Security Council and was not based on evidence.
Both M23 and the Congolese military have previously been accused of violence against civilians. A separate report by Amnesty International, also published on Wednesday, found that M23 and Congolese government-sponsored militias regularly committed mass atrocities and sexual violence against civilians.
The conflict in eastern Congo has displaced seven million people, with the UN describing it as “one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth”. Diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire have so far failed to produce a lasting deal.
In July, the Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers signed a peace agreement at the White House, but M23 was not directly involved and said it could not abide by its terms. A subsequent deal between Congo and M23, facilitated by Qatar, missed its deadline. The US Bureau of African Affairs has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the “horrific abuses perpetrated against civilians, including by M23”.
