UN rights chief Volker Turk says the violence resulted in ‘one of the largest documented death tolls’ despite a truce.
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels killed at least 319 civilians, including 48 women and 19 children, last month in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Volker Turk, UN high commissioner for human rights, said, citing “first-hand accounts”.
The violence in the Rutshuru territory of North Kivu Province produced “one of the largest documented death tolls in such attacks since the M23’s resurgence in 2022,” Turk said in a statement on Wednesday.
With Rwanda’s support, the M23 has seized swaths of the mineral-rich Congolese east from the DRC’s army since its resurgence in 2021, triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis in a region already riven by three decades of conflict.
July’s violence came only weeks after the Congolese government and the M23 signed a declaration of principle on June 19 reaffirming their commitment to a permanent ceasefire, following months of broken truces.
