U.N. warns escalation in Congo war with M23 rebels bringing “summary executions” and gang rapes

Geneva — The United Nations on Friday voiced alarm at rampant violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as the M23 armed group pushed deeper into the country, warning of summary executions and widespread rapes. The group’s capture of most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, earlier in the week was a dramatic escalation in a region that has seen decades of conflict involving multiple armed groups.

The U.N. on Thursday said that it was “deeply concerned” by “credible reports” that the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels were advancing south from Goma to Bukavu — capital of the neighboring South Kivu province.

U.N. rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence said that since the start of the crisis, bombs had struct at least two sites housing internally displaced people (IDPs), “causing civilian casualties.”

“We have also documented summary executions of at least 12 people by M23 between 26 and 28 January,” he told reporters in Geneva.

In areas under M23 control in South Kivu, such as Minova, he said the group had “occupied schools and hospitals, forced IDPs out of camps and subjected the civilian population to forced conscription and forced labor.”

The rights office, he said, had documented “cases of conflict-related sexual violence by the army and allied Wazalendo fighters in Kalehe territory.”

“We are verifying reports that 52 women were raped by Congolese troops in South Kivu, including alleged reports of gang rape,” he said.

Separately, he pointed to reports from DRC officials indicating that at least 165 women were raped by male inmates when more than 4,000 prisoners broke out of Goma’s Muzenze prison on January 27, as the M23 began its assault on the town.

“Conflict-related sexual violence has been an appalling feature of armed conflict in eastern DRC for decades,” Laurence said. 

U.N. rights chief Volker Turk “is particularly concerned that this latest escalation risks deepening the risk of conflict-related sexual violence much further,” he added.

Laurence cautioned that the “widespread proliferation of weapons in Goma” was “exacerbating” those risks.

He also called for investigations to bring “the perpetrators to justice” and to ensure accountability.

Ruth Maclean, West Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, told CBS News this week that the increase of violence in Goma was of particular concern as, for months, people from the surrounding countryside have poured into the city seeking respite from fighting. Many of the displaced people, Maclean said, were living out in the open, leaving them at increased risk.

The U.N., many Western governments and the DRC all accuse Rwanda’s government of backing M23 in a bid to control and exploit their much larger eastern neighbor’s vast mineral resources, in an escalation of a crisis that has been playing out for many years across several international borders.