UN accuses M23 rebel group accused of torture, rape and abduction in DRC

FILE - Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo soldiers take their position following renewed fighting near the Congolese border with Rwanda, outside Goma in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, May 28, 2022.

KINSASHA - A new United Nations Panel of Experts’ report has accused the M23 rebel group of abductions, torture, and rape of women in northern Kivu -Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 21-page document — based on interviews with more than 230 sources and visits to the Rutshuru area of Congo's North Kivu province, where the M23 has seized territory — is expected to be published before the end of this week.

The conflict has been simmering for decades in eastern Congo, where over 120 armed groups are fighting in the region, most for land and control of mines with valuable minerals, while some groups are trying to protect their communities.

The M23 first rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, the largest city in Congo's east, which sits on the border with Rwanda. The group derives its name from a peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009, which called for the rebels to be integrated into the Congo army. The M23 accuse the government of not implementing the accord.

UN Panel of the Expert report further indicates that that 2021, M23 began killing civilians and capturing swaths of territory. M23 fighters raped and harassed women trying to farm family fields in rebel-controlled areas, according to the report.

The rebels accused civilians of spying for the Congolese army, the report said, and often incarcerated them and, in some cases, beat them to death.

Populations living under M23 not only are subject to abuse but are forced to pay taxes, the panel said. At the Bunagana border crossing with Uganda, the rebels earned an average of $27,000 a month making people carrying goods pay as they entered and left the country, the U.N. said.

Two locals living under M23 who did not want to be named for fear of their safety told The Associated Press they had been forced to bring the rebels bags of beans, pay $5 if they wanted to access their farms, and take backroads if they wanted to leave the village for fear of reprisal.

However, M23 has continued to deny the accusations, terming them as propaganda.

The violence by the rebels is part of an overall worsening of the crisis in eastern Congo, with fighting by armed groups intensifying and expanding in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces, said the report.

"The security and humanitarian situation in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces significantly deteriorated, despite the continuous enforcement of a state of siege over the past 18 months," and despite military operations by Congo's armed forces, Uganda's military and the U.N. mission in Congo, the report said.

Adding to the difficult situation in eastern Congo, attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces — believed to be linked with the Islamic State group — are increasing, the report said, and a nearly yearlong joint operation by Uganda's and Congo's armies "has not yet yielded the expected results of defeating or substantially weakening the ADF." Since April, according to the report, ADF attacks killed at least 370 civilians, and several hundred more were abducted, including a significant number of children. The group also extended its area of operations to Goma and into the neighboring Ituri province.

GAROWE ONLINE