At least 140 civilians were killed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last month by M23 rebels, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported, in one of the deadliest atrocities committed by the armed group since its resurgence in 2021. The rights group said the actual death toll could exceed 300, echoing findings by the United Nations earlier this month.
According to witness testimonies, M23 fighters, allegedly backed by Rwanda’s army, carried out summary executions of residents many of them women and children from the Hutu ethnic community between July 10 and 30 in at least 14 villages near Virunga National Park. Survivors described machete and gun attacks, with rebels surrounding villages, blocking escape routes, and even throwing bodies into the Rutshuru River. Families were barred from conducting burials, forcing some to leave their loved ones unburied.
One woman recounted seeing her husband hacked to death with a machete before she and dozens of others were forced to sit along a riverbank, where fighters opened fire. Another man told HRW he witnessed his wife and four children, the youngest only nine months old, killed before his eyes.
The massacre is believed to have occurred during M23’s campaign against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu armed group linked to perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda has repeatedly denied supporting the M23 and dismissed UN allegations of its involvement as “gratuitous” and “sensational.”
The killings come despite renewed international efforts to end the conflict. In July, the DRC government and M23 signed a ceasefire deal in Qatar, mediated by the U.S. and Qatar, but the rebels later withdrew from peace talks, accusing Kinshasa of failing to honor its commitments. Fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and left thousands dead in the mineral-rich region.
HRW has urged the UN Security Council, the European Union, and other governments to condemn the atrocities, enforce sanctions, and push for the arrest of commanders implicated in the killings.
