M23 and Rwandan army committed war crimes, HRW report alleges

AFC/M23 rebels and the Rwandan army have committed numerous war crimes in eastern DR Congo, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

In the aftermath of the capture of the city of Goma on January 30, 2025, when 11 trucks left the Unity Stadium with approximately 1,700 people on board and headed north towards Rutshuru, a campaign of forced recruitment began which HRW, which conducted some 200 interviews with former detainees, describes as systematic.

Soldiers of the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), police officers, civil servants or ordinary civilians rounded up in neighborhoods, hospitals or churches: all are forcibly taken to the camps of Rumangabo and Tshanzu where the NGO estimates that hundreds of people died during the year 2025.

Witnesses reported mass graves in Rumangabo and ground disturbances have been detected by satellite imagery, the report says.

HRW also accused the Congolese government of backing armed groups responsible for serious abuses. The report documents FARDC support for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and Wazalendo factions accused of violence, arbitrary detention and extortion against displaced people around Goma.

HRW is calling on Kinshasa to cease all material support to these groups and to open independent investigations targeting all parties to the conflict.

Neither Kigali nor AFC/M23 have responded to requests for comment, the NGO said.