DR CONGO: Over 7,000 People Killed Since January In Kivu – Prime Minister Says
Since last month, violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed “more than 7,000 compatriots,” many of them are civilians, according to Congo’s premier.
Despite minor resistance from Congolese soldiers, the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group has seized huge swaths of the mineral-rich eastern DRC, including the major cities of Goma and Bukavu.
“The security situation in eastern DRC has reached alarming levels,” Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, stressing that since January, “the deaths of more than 7,000 compatriots” had been registered.
#DroitsDeLHomme #RDCGenève
— Primature de la République Démocratique du Congo (@PrimatureRDC) February 24, 2025
24 février 2025 | Extrait de l’allocution de la Cheffe du Gouvernement lors de la 58ᵉ session du Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU. pic.twitter.com/KWESDAv0A6
She stated that “more than 2,500 bodies buried without being identified” and that another 1,500 remains were remained in the morgue.
At a press briefing on the sidelines of the council, it was asked whether the fatalities were civilians or troops.
“For the moment… we have not yet been able to identify all of these people,” she said.
But, she stressed, “there is a significant mass of civilians who are part of these dead”.
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According to UN analysts, the M23 movement, which is supported by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, currently controls substantial portions of the eastern DRC, a problematic region rich in natural resources.
Its rapid progress has forced thousands to flee.
Fighters grabbed control of Bukavu, the provincial seat of South Kivu, just over a week ago, after conquering Goma, the capital of North Kivu and the country’s easternmost city, the previous month.
The premier claimed that around 3,000 people had been slain in Goma alone.
DR CONGO: Over 7,000 People Killed Since January In Kivu – Prime Minister Says
