CONGO: The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday called for the presentation of information and evidence regarding atrocities committed in eastern Congo, where at least 2,900 people were killed in violence since the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel movement seized the eastern city of Goma last week.
“The Office will continue to investigate alleged crimes committed by any person, irrespective of affiliation or nationality and will not be limited to particular individuals, parties or members of specific groups,” the prosecutor's offfice said in a statement.
As Goma counted its dead, Vivian van de Perre, deputy chief of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), gave an updated toll from the battle for the city.
“So far, 2,000 bodies have been collected from the Goma streets in recent days, and 900 bodies remain in the morgues of the Goma hospitals,” she told a video news conference, saying the toll could still rise.
ICC prosecutors said in a statement they were “closely following” events in the eastern DRC, “including the grave escalation of violence over the past weeks.”
Despite announcing a unilateral ceasefire on Monday, the rebels mounted a fresh offensive gained ground in eastern Congo on Wednesday despite the unilateral ceasefire they declared earlier this week, taking control of a town 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the provincial capital of Bukavu, civil society officials and residents told The Associated Press.
Citing pleas for the safe passage of aid and hundreds of thousands of displaced people, the M23 announced the ceasefire, but Congo’s government has described the ceasefire as “false communication,” and the United Nations has noted reports of heavy fighting with Congolese forces in the mineral-rich region.
The new offensive came days before the Rwandan and Congolese presidents are due to attend a crisis summit.
Intense clashes broke out at dawn on Wednesday as M23 fighters and Rwandan forces seized the mining town of Nyabibwe, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Bukavu and 70 kilometers from the province’s airport, security and humanitarian sources told AFP.
The M23 had said in declaring the ceasefire that it had “no intention of taking control of Bukavu or other localities.”
“This is proof that the unilateral ceasefire that has been declared was, as usual, a ploy,” Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told AFP.
In more than three years of fighting between the Rwanda-backed group and the Congolese army, half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been declared, before being unceremoniously broken.
Local and military sources said in recent days that all sides were reinforcing troops and equipment in the region.
Last week’s capture of Goma was a major escalation in the mineral-rich region, scarred by relentless conflict involving dozens of armed groups over three decades.
“We want peace”
In Bukavu, a city of one million people that residents fear will become the next battleground, a crowd gathered for an ecumenical prayer service for peace, organized by local women.
“We are tired of the non-stop wars. We want peace,” one attendee, Jacqueline Ngengele, told AFP.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame are due to attend a joint summit of the eight-country East African Community and 16-member Southern African Development Community in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Saturday.
A day earlier, the UN Human Rights Council will convene a special session on the crisis, at Kinshasa’s request.
Diplomatic sources say the M23’s advance in the east of the vast central African nation could weaken Tshisekedi, who won a second term in December 2023.
Fears the violence could spark a wider conflict have galvanized regional bodies, mediators such as Angola and Kenya, as well as the United Nations, European Union and other countries in diplomatic efforts for a peaceful resolution.
But the DRC’s top diplomat accused the international community of being all talk and no action on the conflict.
“We see a lot of declarations but we don’t see actions,” Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told journalists in Brussels.
Several neighboring countries have already said they are bolstering their defenses, wary of the crisis spilling over.
A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda had up to 4,000 troops in the DRC, seeking to profit from its vast mineral wealth, and that Kigali has “de facto” control over the M23.
The eastern DRC has deposits of coltan, a metallic ore that is vital in making phones and laptops, as well as gold and other minerals.
Rwanda has never explicitly admitted to military involvement in support of the M23 and alleges that the DRC supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
