GOMA: At least eight people, including five women and two children, were tragically killed in a fresh attack in the troubled eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) on Wednesday, according to local sources. The attack took place in the village of Bungushu, located in the North Kivu province.
Reports indicate that armed men targeted the village overnight, resulting in the loss of eight innocent lives. A worker from the local Red Cross confirmed the casualties, stating that at least four individuals were brutally hacked to death. Additionally, the bodies of four others were discovered in pit latrines.
An anonymous source from a civil society group verified the death toll, while local administrative official Isaac Kibira estimated the figure to be around nine. Kibira implicated the M23, a predominantly Tutsi group notorious for its conflict with DR Congo’s armed forces and local militias, as the primary suspects behind the attack.
Violence in DR Congo
Corroborating this account, the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), a reliable monitor of violence in eastern DR Congo, reported on Twitter that the M23 were believed to have targeted civilians while pursuing a fighter associated with the predominantly Hutu armed group known as Nyatura CMC.
In response to the incident, the M23 issued a statement condemning “the killings… which occurred on the night of July 4 in Bungushu, Tongo, and the surrounding area,” placing blame on the “Kinshasa government forces.”
After a period of relative calm, the M23 resumed fighting in late 2021, swiftly capturing significant territories near DR Congo’s border with Rwanda. Struggling to contain the escalating conflict, the government accused Rwanda of supporting the rebels—an allegation denied by Kigali but corroborated by United Nations experts.
The M23 has previously been accused of carrying out a massacre in November, where over 170 people lost their lives in Kishishe, a village located approximately 15 kilometers (nine miles) north of Bungushu.
