Geneva – The United Nations expressed the alarm to rampant violence on Friday in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, while the armed group of the M23 pushed more deeply in the country, warning summary executions and generalized rapes. The capture by the group of most of Goma, the capital of the province of northern Kivu, earlier in the week was a spectacular escalation in a region which has experienced decades of conflict involving several armed groups.
The UN said Thursday that it was “deeply concerned” by “credible reports” according to which the M23 rebels supported by Rwandans progressed from southern Goma to Bukavu – capital of the neighboring province of South Kivu.
The spokesperson for the United Nations Rights Office, Jeremy Laurence, said that since the start of the crisis, bombs have had structures at least two sites sheltering internal people (PDI), “causing civilian victims” .
“We have also documented summary executions of at least 12 people per m23 between January 26 and 28,” he told journalists in Geneva.
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In areas under the control of the M23 in the south of Kivu, like Minova, he said that the group had “occupied schools and hospitals, forced PDI of the camps and subject the civilian population to a forced conscription and for forced work ».
The Rights Office, he said, had documented “cases of sexual violence linked to conflicts by the army and combined the Wazalendo fighters in Kalehe territory”.
“We check the information that 52 women were raped by Congolese troops in southern Kivu, including alleged gang rape reports,” he said.
Furthermore, he stressed that reports from DRC officials indicating that at least 165 women were raped by male prisoners when more than 4,000 prisoners broke out from Muzenze prison of Goma on January 27, while the M23 began its assault against the city.
“Sexual violence linked to conflicts is a terrible characteristic of armed conflicts in the east of the DRC for decades,” said Laurence.
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The head of the Rights of the United Nations Volker Turk “is particularly concerned that the latter escalation risks deepening a lot the risk of sexual violence related to conflicts,” he added.
Laurence warned that the “general proliferation of weapons in Goma” “exacerbated” these risks.
He also called for investigations to translate “the perpetrators” and ensure responsibility.
Ruth Maclean, head of the West African Bureau for the New York Times, told CBS News this week that the increase in violence in Goma was particularly worrying because, for months, people in the campaign surrounding competed in the city looking for a respite to fight. Many people displaced, said Maclean, lived in the open air, leaving them at increased risks.
The UN, many Western governments and the DRC all accuse the government of Rwanda of supporting M23 in order to control and exploit the vast mineral resources of their greatest oriental neighbor, in the climbing of a crisis that Tops down for many years through several international borders.