Africa

At least nine killed in strike on displacement camp in eastern DR Congo

Rwandan government denies its army was behind the attack

One of a number of displacement camps near Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. An attack on one such camp on Friday killed at least nine people. Photograph: Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images

Sat May 4 2024 - 09:23

At least 12 people, including seven children, were killed on Friday in a strike on a displacement camp in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, a local official and a military spokesman said.

It was not immediately clear what kind of explosive device was used or who was responsible for the attack.

A two-year offensive by the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 has moved closer to Goma in recent months, prompting thousands to seek refuge in the city from surrounding areas.

President Felix Tshisekedi, who has been abroad for several weeks, decided to return to Congo over the weekend following the attack, the presidency said.

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The head of the Lac Vert district where the incident occurred, Dedesi Mitima, told Reuters he had seen the bodies of seven children and two men at the camp.

Dozens of people have reportedly been injured and the death toll could rise.

A civil society leader in Goma, Marrion Ngavho, said three bombs fell on the camp.

Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Njike Kaiko, a spokesman for the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) army in the region, said the strike had come in retaliation for earlier DRC attacks on Rwandan army positions which he said had destroyed arms and ammunition. He gave no details about the attack on the camp.

Congo's government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya, in a message on X, also blamed the Tutsi-led M23 for Friday's attack.

Opposition leaders condemned the attack on X, calling on the international community to back Congo and act against Rwanda's military involvement in the country.

The Congolese government, UN officials and Western powers have repeatedly accused Rwanda of providing support for the M23. Rwanda denies this.

An M23 leader, Bertrand Bisimwa, also writing on X, accused the Congolese authorities of deliberately attacking the camp in an attempt to "manipulate" the international community.

The Congo branch of medical charity Médicins sans Frontières (MSF) said it had to stop a distribution round and halt medical consultations on Friday morning because of rising insecurity.

MSF Congo "condemns the increasingly regular use of heavy artillery in the immediate proximity of displacement camps around Goma," it posted on X.

The United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, Monusco, also condemned the bombing in a statement and called on Congolese authorities to prosecute perpetrators.

In February, a strike blasted a crater into the ground in the same Lac Vert neighbourhood. Nobody was hurt in that attack, but it underscored the seriousness of the threat to Goma, a strategic urban hub in the conflict-ridden eastern DRC. - Reuters

The United States strongly condemned the attack, with the State Department saying in a statement the attack came from positions held by Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) and the M23 rebel group. The US is “gravely concerned about the recent RDF and M23 expansion” in eastern Congo, it said.

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Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo on Saturday denied the RDF was behind the attack and instead blamed it on militias supported by the Congolese military.

“The RDF, a professional army, would never attack an IDP (displaced persons). Look to the lawless FDLR and Wazalendo supported by the FARDC [Congolese military] for this kind of atrocity,” she said in a post on X.

The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is a Hutu group founded by Hutu officials who fled Rwanda after orchestrating the 1994 genocide while Wazalendo is a Christian sect.

A two-year offensive by M23 rebels has moved closer to the eastern Congolese city of Goma in recent months, prompting thousands to seek refuge in the city from surrounding areas.

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024

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