‘I’ll never see him again’: Attacks killing aid workers in eastern DRC
Al Jazeera
Since the start of 2024, more than 170 security incidents have directly targeted humanitarian workers, the UN says.
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – It was Sunday, June 30, two days after M23 rebels seized Kanyabayonga, a strategic city in Lubero territory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province.
After sunset, horrifying images began making the rounds on social media, showing the wreckage of unknown vehicles and the bodies of two people who were lynched, their bloodied faces making them difficult to identify.
Hours earlier, five vehicles carrying a dozen humanitarian workers had left Lubero territory for Beni, some 100km (60 miles) away, local sources told Al Jazeera. On the road, their convoy was attacked.
Two Congolese aid workers with Tearfund, a foreign NGO, were killed, the organisation said. Five cars and seven motorcycles were also set alight, civil society sources told Al Jazeera.
John Nzabanita Amahoro, 37, who had worked for the United Kingdom-based charity for 10 years as a water, sanitation and hygiene technician, was among those killed.
