M23 rebels and the Rwandan army carried out killings, rapes and abductions during a \u200bmonth-long occupation of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic \u200cof Congo in late 2025 and early 2026, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The rebels briefly \u200bcaptured the city of Uvira in December \u200band\u00a0withdrew\u00a0weeks later under pressure from the United \u2060States.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch documented 53 summary executions, eight \u200brapes and 12 enforced disappearances committed by the rebels \u200bduring their takeover and occupation of Uvira.<\/p>\n
Fighters shot at fleeing civilians and went door-to-door targeting men and boys accused of \u200blinks to government-backed local militias, the report said.<\/p>\n
Rwanda’s \u200bgovernment and a spokesperson for the rebels did not immediately \u200crespond \u2060to requests for comment. Both have denied past allegations of human rights abuses and accused the Congolese army and allied militias of targeting members of the \u200bTutsi community.<\/p>\n
Fighting \u200bhas continued \u2060in eastern Congo despite mediation efforts by various international actors, including the United \u200bStates.<\/p>\n
Washington imposed\u00a0sanctions\u00a0in March on the Rwandan \u200bDefence \u2060Force and senior army officials over their alleged support for M23, which Rwanda denies.<\/p>\n
Late\u00a0last week, the rebels withdrew \u2060from \u200bseveral positions in South Kivu, \u200bwhere Uvira is located, retreating about 30 kilometres further north.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
M23 rebels and the Rwandan army carried out killings, rapes and abductions during a \u200bmonth-long occupation of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic \u200cof Congo in late 2025 and early 2026, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday. The rebels briefly \u200bcaptured the city of Uvira in December \u200band\u00a0withdrew\u00a0weeks later under pressure from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2362,1129],"tags":[72,1621,140],"class_list":["post-20874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-featured","category-security","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-m23-rebels","tag-rwanda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20876,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874\/revisions\/20876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}