The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned this Thursday of the intensification of fighting during the last two weeks in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He urged all parties involved to immediately halt offensives and called on the Congolese authorities and the international community to redouble efforts to implement already signed peace agreements.
"It is deeply worrying that, despite the agreements reached within the framework of ongoing peace processes, fighting continues without respite in eastern DRC, causing deaths, injuries, and displacement among the civilian population, in addition to destroying their livelihoods," lamented the UN Human Rights chief.
Last weekend, at least 18 people lost their lives in a bombing attributed to militias of the March 23 Movement (M23) against the town of Mulima, in the province of South Kivu, an attack that adds to the intense clashes recorded in this region in the last two weeks.
The UN has pointed out that both the Congolese Armed Forces and the M23, backed by the Rwandan Army, have used armed drones, heavy artillery, and other explosive weapons in areas inhabited by civilians. "Many have lost their lives and others have been injured, in addition to livestock and homes being destroyed," the organization denounced.
Türk called on the contenders "to immediately refrain from committing new acts of violence and to act urgently to de-escalate tensions" and, at the same time, "to take significant measures to protect the civilian population" caught between the clashes.
"The use of explosive weapons with wide-ranging effects in populated areas has devastating consequences and must cease," he urged, warning that this escalation could trigger new mass displacements and a resurgence of human rights violations and abuses, including executions and sexual violence.
The High Commissioner stressed that all actors, including their allies, are obliged to ensure safe access for humanitarian aid. Furthermore, he urged Rwanda to end its support for the M23 and to withdraw its troops from Congolese territory.
At the same time, he called on the authorities of the DRC to strengthen initiatives to demobilize, disarm, and repatriate members of the armed group Rwandan Defence Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
DRC and Rwanda have been participating for months in a peace process to try to end a conflict that has worsened in recent years, especially after the offensive launched in 2022 by the M23, composed largely of Congolese Tutsis, which took control of the capitals of North Kivu and South Kivu.
This offensive triggered harsh accusations from Kinshasa against Kigali, while Rwanda accuses the DRC of repressing Congolese Tutsis with the backing of armed groups such as the FDLR, created by Hutus who fled after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.