The M23 rebel group has sounded alarm, again about a purported genocide taking place in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).
Since May this year, the rebel group has been at war with the Congolese government, but recently said it would support the recommendation of the Luanda summit to withdraw.
In a statement released on Tuesday, December 6, the M23 said it condemns in the strongest terms the "ongoing genocide and targeted killings perpetrated by the DR Congo government coalition" of the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and irregular armed groups like FDLR, Nyatura, APCLS and Mai-Mai.
"On Tuesday, December 6, the DRC government's coalition attacked our positions in Bwiza and its surroundings, in total breach of the current ceasefire. The said coalition is on rampage killing innocent civilians, destroying their houses, looting and slaughtering their cows in total sabotage. These ongoing attacks have left many wounded and displaced civilian populations," the statement read.
"It shall be recorded that these targeted killings of Tutsi and those who have rejected the genocide ideology by the said DRC government's coalition while the international and national community remained tight-lipped, take us back to the time prior to the genocide of 1994 perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda," it added.
Last month, members of the Rwandan civil society called on the international community to help do something about the hate speech and "acts of genocide" committed against Tutsi communities in eastern DR Congo.
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Violence against Congolese Tutsi communities is said to have worsened this year following the resurgence of the M23 rebel group, who are currently fighting the government forces in North Kivu province.
"We witnessed, with helplessness and fear, in the media the massacres against the Tutsi in the Democratic Republic of Congo because they were live, we saw the acts of cannibalism of the Congolese Tutsi of Kinyarwanda expression, which were spread on social media," read a statement released by the Yolande Mukagasana Foundation on November 28.
In the Tuesday statement, the M23 also said it is calling upon the United Nations' Security Council, African Union, East African Community, the European Union and more international organisations to take immediate and concrete action "against the ongoing genocide being perpetrated by the DRC Government Coalition,"
It added that it is inviting humanitarian organisations to intervene and assist the ongoing increasing numbers of displaced families "as there are over 5000 at the moment, that have found refuge in the areas under our control."
"From the foregoing, the M23 Movement will not stand by and watch civilian populations continuously being slaughtered by the said DRC Government coalition, instead it is ready to intervene and stop these horrific massacres," it noted
