Press Release - Congolese Army Puts Displaced People Around Goma at Greater Risk
army and the M23 armed group have throughout 2024 indiscriminately shelled displacement camps and other densely populated areas near Goma in eastern Congo.armed forces and allied militias have increased the risk faced by displaced people in the camps by deploying artillery nearby and by entering the camps, where they have committed abuses against residents.
Between May and July 2024, Human Rights Watch researchers visited the displacement camps or sites of Bulengo, Bushagara, Kanyaruchinya, Lushagala, Mugunga , and Shabindu-Kashaka around Goma, and interviewed 65 victims of abuses, witnesses, and camp authorities. Those interviewed included nine survivors of sexual violence and five people with credible information about sexual violence. Researchers also interviewed 31 humanitarian, diplomatic, UN, and military sources.
"We've had a big influx of patients since February," said a doctor in Goma."The bombs are the cause, as well as the Wazalendo, who are out of control. The bullets kill the men and youths; the explosive weapons kill the women and children. During the day, the men go to work and are not in the camps. We are treating more children below age 5."
"All parties to the conflict in North Kivu have displayed a callous disregard for the lives of civilians, whose protection is enshrined in international law," de Montjoye said."Congo and Rwanda should recognize that abuses by one warring side never justify abuses by the other, end their support to abusive armed groups, and hold accountable anyone responsible for war crimes.
At least one rocket hit the Shabindu-Kashaka displacement site on April 6, killing a 19-year-old man and seriously injuring two other people, and destroying about forty shelters, according to two camp sources and an aid official. In July Human Rights Watch visited the location of the strike, which satellite imagery showed had been emptied of shelters by April 22.On May 3 between 10 and 11 a.m.
Craters from two other rockets were geolocated to an empty area close to the Elohim camp and north of the Lushagala camp, also in an empty area. Human Rights Watch confirmed the names of at least 35 civilians injured during the bombing. An 18-year-old woman who was in her shelter when the rockets hit Mugunga camp lost a leg. Fragments were lodged in a 20-year-old woman's neck and throat, injuring her and preventing her from swallowing. Many said they had fled the fighting in Sake in February in the hope of finding safety closer to Goma.
Camp residents said the presence of Congolese soldiers and Wazalendo inside the camps has led to increased insecurity and abuses against residents, which amount to war crimes. They described frequent exchanges of gunfire and looting by the Wazalendo. A resident of Kanyaruchinya camp said,"It's not safe to go out after 5 p.m. There are armed men, often in uniforms, who are around. Sometimes people are killed.
Another man said the Wazalendo detained him in March for alleged theft and put him in the kiboro overnight:"They beat me with sticks on my buttocks and, when I moved, they beat me everywhere ... my back, my side. Until today I still experience pain on my right kidney." He said his father, who had to pay a bribe to have him released, had been previously detained for three days in the kiboro in January:"When the suffering gets too intense, you have to pay not to die.
Maarifa, the camp volunteer, said:"Unidentified armed men are regularly accused by the displaced of raping women in the camps or in the nearby areas." A humanitarian worker said that they were recording between 50 and 100 cases of rape or sexual assault a week in certain camps. Women also described crossing the front line to access their fields in the areas surrounding Sake. A 35-year-old woman who was raped in May said:"Some M23 rebels came to my house and asked me why I was here. They accused me of being sent by the enemy as a spy.... I didn't have a choice, four of them raped me." She was told after she returned to the camp and sought medical treatment that she had been infected with a sexually transmitted disease.
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