This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
RWANDA-backed insurgents who seized a second major city in eastern Congo this week were accused today by the United Nations human rights chief of killing and recruiting children.
Volker Turk said that his office “confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week.”
“We are also aware that children were in possession of weapons,” he said, adding that hospitals and humanitarian aid warehouses had been attacked.
Mr Turk provided no further detail, but UN agencies have previously accused both Congolese government forces and insurgents of recruiting children.
Earlier this month, the United Nations Human Rights Council launched a commission to investigate atrocities, including rapes and killings akin to “summary executions” committed by both sides since the beginning of the year.
On Sunday the M23 captured Bukavu, a city of 1.3 million, after seizing Goma, 63 miles to the north, last month.
At least 3,000 were reported killed and thousands displaced in the Goma fighting.
M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of eastern Congo’s vast mineral wealth, critical for much of the world’s technology.
