Geneva — More than 7,000 people have died in fighting this year in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC Prime Minister Judith Suminwa said on Monday.
Suminwa told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) in Geneva that combatants and civilians were among the dead, and the dire security and humanitarian situation had “reached alarming levels”.
About 3,000 deaths were reported in Goma alone, and about 450,0000 people were left without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed, she said.
Since January, the M23 rebel group, which Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing, has captured swathes of eastern DRC, including the cities of Goma and Bukavu, as well as valuable mineral deposit sites.
The latest fighting and M23’s unprecedented territorial gains are part of a major escalation in fighting over power, identity and resources dating back to the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s.
Rwanda has rejected allegations from the DRC government, the UN and Western powers that it supports the M23 fighters with weapons and troops.
Suminwa urged the world to impose “dissuasive sanctions” on Rwanda, which she blamed for mass displacements and summary executions.
“It is impossible to describe the screams and cries of millions of victims of this conflict,” she said.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said at the Geneva meeting that human rights globally were being “suffocated” and made reference to horrifying abuses in the DRC.
“If this question of the violation of territorial integrity isn’t resolved, the situation could degenerate,” Suminwa said after her address to the UNHCR.
About 40,000 people had fled to Burundi, one of the nine countries that borders the DRC, in the past two weeks to escape the fighting, the UN said on Friday.
Suminwa warned the worsening fighting with M23 and other armed groups — there are about 100 such groups in the eastern DRC — could spill over to neighbouring countries, posing a danger to them.
Reuters
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