At least 700 people have been killed in the most recent fight since Sunday. Now the M23 rebels are moving forward to another major city, Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo on Friday after capturing the main city Goma.
There are hundreds of thousands of people living in Bukavu which is the capital of South Kivu province. According to Lacroix, M23 rebels are approaching a major airport north of the city.
As a precaution, the UN is relocating its employees out of Bukavu. In the resource rich eastern Congo, M23 is one of over 100 armed groups that has been at odds with the government forces for many years.
Corneille Nangaa, the commander of M23 declared Thursday that the organization is “in Goma to stay” and that they would march on Kinshasa, the capital in an attempt to topple President Félix Tshisekedi.
The UN has repeatedly urged Rwanda to remove its troops from Congo and stop supporting M23 despite Rwanda’s denials of supporting the rebels.
At least 700 people have been murdered in the most recent fight since Sunday, according to the international organization.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric stated late Friday that 2,800 people were injured in the violence and that the number is likely to increase as more details come out.
Amid reports of an increase in sexual violence, the UN human rights office warned earlier Friday that the situation in eastern Congo is becoming worse and creating a human rights catastrophe.
The Geneva based organization formerly known as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported numerous rapes in the neighboring province of South Kivu’s fighting zones and the provincial capital Goma.
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The office claimed in a statement that such violence was not new and that it was “verifying reports that 52 women were raped by Congolese troops in South Kivu including alleged reports of gangrape.”
“Conflict related sexual violence has been an appalling feature of armed conflict in eastern DRC for decades,” the OHCHR said.
Since the M23 rebel group gained control of Goma on Lake Kivu, fighting has grown more intense in the area.
