At least 773 people were killed in the largest city of Goma in the east of the Congo this week because they were supported with rebels from Rwanda, which conquered the city in a large escalation of a decadelonish conflict, the Congolese authorities announced on Saturday. The progress of the rebels into other areas was slowed down by a weakened military, which some villages regained them.
The authorities confirmed 773 corpses and 2,880 injured people in Gomas Morgues and hospitals, said Patrick Muyaya, spokesman for the Congolese government, told a briefing in the capital, Kinshasa, and added that the number of fatalities could be higher.
“These numbers remain for the time being because the rebels asked the population to clean the streets of Goma. There should be mass graves, and the Rucander took care of evacuating their,” said Muyaya.
Hundreds of Goma residents returned to the city on Saturday after the rebels had promised to restore the basic services such as water and power supply. They cleaned up the districts of weapons that were covered with rubble and filled with the stench of the blood.
“I am tired and do not know what way to go. There is a mourners on every corner (there),” said Jean Marcus, 25, whose relatives were killed under the fights.
M23 is the most effective of more than 100 armed groups that compete in the mineral -rich east of Congo for control, which contains enormous insoles for a large part of the global technology. According to the UN experts, they are supported by around 4,000 soldiers from neighboring Rwanda – far more than in 2012 when they conquered Goma for the first time and held for days in a conflict that was driven by ethnic complaints.
When the fights moved on with the M23 rebels on Saturday, the Congolese army took the villages of Sanzi, Muganzo and Mukwidja in the Kale territory from South Kivu, which had fallen on the rebels at the beginning of this week, press the condition of anonymity about fear for your security.
The military of the Central African nation was weakened after losing hundreds of troops and foreign mercenaries were shown to the rebels after the fall of Goma.
Goma’s confiscation led to a poor humanitarian crisis that said the UN and auxiliary group. Goma serves as a humanitarian hub, which is critical of many of the six million people who were sold by the conflict in the eastern Congo. The rebels said they will march up to Kongo’s Capital Kinshasa, 1,600 kilometers west.
The UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric also informed a briefing on Friday that the World Health Organization and its partners had carried out an assessment with the Congo government between January 26, and reported that 700 people killed in Goma and in the area and 2,800 were injured. Dujarric confirmed AP that death took place these days.
In its offspring, the rebel advance has forced extrajudicial murders and the compulsory military service of civilians, said Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN human rights on Friday. “We also documented summary executions of at least 12 people from M23 from January 26th to 28th, said Laurence and added that the group also occupied schools and hospitals in the province and that civilians were subject to compulsory military work and forced labor.
Congolese armed forces were also accused of fighting anger in the region because of sexual violence, Laurence said, adding that the UN reports reports that Congolese troops raped 52 women in Südkivu.
The capture of Goma has humanitarian operations in “still silent, which dismantled an important lifestyle for the aids in the east (Congo),” said Rose Tchwenko, country director of the Mercy Corps Aid Group in the Congo.
