Mass graves with 171 bodies found in eastern DR Congo: Report
Al Jazeera
A local governor says authorities found two mass graves in the outskirts of the eastern city of Uvira.
Congolese authorities and a civil society group have said that mass graves were found in a part of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the M23 rebel group has recently withdrawn from, as fighting in the region escalates despite a United States-mediated peace deal.
The governor of South Kivu province, Jean-Jacques Purusi, told The Associated Press news agency on Thursday that authorities found two mass graves with at least 171 bodies in the Kiromoni and Kavimvira neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the eastern city of Uvira.
“At this stage, we have identified two sites: one mass grave containing approximately 30 bodies in Kiromoni, not far from the Burundian border on the Congolese side, and another in Kavimvira where 141 bodies were found,” Purusi told AP over the phone.
The Executive Secretariat of the Local Network for the Protection of Civilians, a civil society group in the region, said on Thursday it wanted to visit the mass graves but was prevented from doing so by the Congolese military.
Information gathered so far indicates that the victims were killed by M23 rebels, said Yves Ramadhani, the group’s vice president.
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