At least 150 civilians were massacred in a Democratic Republic of Cong (DRC) town last month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Thursday that strongly criticised UN peacekeepers.
Most of those killed in the eastern town of Kiwanja on November 4 and 5 were “summarily executed” by rebel forces loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda, who is leading a new offensive against the army.
“Others died during combat between Nkunda’s forces and the Mai-Mai militia, a local armed group that supports the Congolese government and often fights alongside the national army,” the organisation said.
“Mai-Mai militia also deliberately killed people.”
The report said the UN peacekeeping forces, known as Monuc, were about 1km away when the killings were carried out in the town in Nord-Kivu province.
Days earlier, Nkunda’s rebel group had taken control of Kiwanja and Rutshuru after defeating Congolese army soldiers in a battle, HRW said.
“Due to the importance of these two towns as centres for humanitarian assistance, Monuc considered them a priority protection zone, yet the peacekeepers did not protect the towns from a rebel takeover or halt the destruction of displacement camps,” it said.
“Nor did they stop the mass killing of civilians in Kiwanja where they had an important field base.”
HRW called it one of the worst killing sprees in the eastern Nord-Kivu province in the past two years.
Nord-Kivu has been at the centre of the conflict between Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and government forces. New clashes that broke out between the two sides in August have displaced more than 250 000 people.
HRW said that “following the Kiwanja killings, CNDP and Mai-Mai combatants continue to kill, rape, forcibly recruit children, and otherwise mistreat civilians in and around Kiwanja, the neighbouring town of Rutshuru, and in areas further north”.
It said it had recorded another “18 deliberate killings in November and December perpetrated by the CNDP, the Mai-Mai and their allies, and received reports of another 25 deaths, although ongoing insecurity has made it impossible to verify all such information”.
Representatives of the government and Nkunda’s rebels began talks in Nairobi this week, the first direct negotiations between the two sides since the clashes broke out in August.
The talks stalled on Wednesday, with the rebels accusing the United Nations of taking sides and threatening a walkout. — AFP