The UN human rights office accused the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels of killing three children in Bakavu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo city they captured last week, expressing alarm at human rights violations by the militia.
“Our office has 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,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN’s Office of the high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR), said on Tuesday.
Shamdasani said the three children, all boys aged 15 or younger, were in uniform and carrying weapons – all from an abandoned DRC military camp – and were killed when they refused to surrender the weapons.
Decades-long fighting among regional armies and rebels in the mineral-rich eastern DRC has killed and displaced millions of people. Fighting escalated last month when M23 fighters captured parts of North Kivu and advanced towards South Kivu.
Last week, M23 rebels occupied Bukavu, the second-largest city in eastern DRC, after earlier capturing the city of Goma.
M23 is the latest in a string of Tutsi-led insurgent groups to operate in the region since a 2003 deal that was meant to end the wars that had killed 6 million people. It says its objective is to safeguard the interests of the Congolese Tutsi and other minorities.
The DRC, the US and others have accused Rwanda of backing the group, which it denies.
The UN has in the past accused the Congolese army and opposing militias of recruiting children, and the UN human rights council is investigating rapes, killings and other abuses committed by both sides.
A Guardian report in December detailed stories of executions of children and rape of women by M23 rebels. The group’s spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, said the allegations did not “reflect the likeness of the situation”.
On Tuesday, M23 reopened a ferry route between Bukavu and Goma on Lake Kivu after weeks of closure, and Ugandan soldiers entered the north-eastern DRC city of Bunia to help Congolese troops fighting the rebels.
This year’s conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in eastern DRC and between 10,000 and 15,000 have crossed into neighbouring Burundi in days, the UN says. “The situation in the eastern DRC remains extremely challenging and fluid,” Shamdasani said.
In the statement, Shamdasani condemned attacks on hospitals and humanitarian warehouses, and threats against the judiciary, all which were said to be connected to M23’s advance in eastern DRC.
On Tuesday, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it had summoned Rwanda’s envoy to the UK to condemn the group’s advances.
