Amnesty says Rwanda-backed militia tortured DR Congo civilians
KINSHASA: Amnesty International accused the Rwanda-backed M23 militia of killing and torturing civilian prisoners in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in a report published on Tuesday.
Since its resurgence in 2021, the M23 has seized vast swathes of the DRC's resource-rich east with Rwanda's help.
In a lightning offensive, the M23 captured the key cities of Goma and Bukavu at the beginning of 2025, before setting itself up to govern for the long term in the areas under its control.
Yet the armed group has struggled to clamp down on the region's persistent unrest, with hundreds of Congolese soldiers and pro-government militia fighters having dispersed to evade capture by the M23.
The M23 regularly carries out raids in Goma and Bukavu, claiming to have captured hundreds of suspected criminals.
'M23's public statements about bringing order to eastern DRC mask their horrific treatment of detainees,' said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.
The rights group said it had taken testimony from 18 civilians 'who had been held unlawfully in M23 detention sites in Goma and Bukavu, nine of whom were tortured by M23 fighters'.
Former prisoners said they had been accused by the M23 of supporting the DRC's government, though the 'M23 never produced evidence of these accusations', the Amnesty report said.
'They said hundreds were held in overcrowded, unsanitary cells without sufficient food, water, sanitation facilities or healthcare,' the report continued.
Eight of the witnesses said they had seen fellow detainees die while incarcerated, 'likely from torture and harsh detention conditions', the report added.
Two others testified that they saw M23 militiamen kill prisoners, it said. One witnessed two people killed with hammers, while another said they saw a fellow prisoner shot dead.
According to the witnesses, M23 fighters tortured prisoners 'with flexible wooden rods, boards, electric cables, engine belts, gun butts, or sticks, on their backs, legs, buttocks and genitals, leaving them with signs of trauma'.
Some detainees were driven to 'drinking each other's urine' by the harsh conditions, one prisoner told Amnesty.
The rights group called for the M23 to grant independent monitors access to its detention sites.
Chagutah, Amnesty's regional director, urged the international community to put pressure on Rwanda to stop supporting the armed group.
Responding to the report on X, M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka accused Chagutah of making 'grotesque and unsubstantiated accusations'.
'We will soon publish a detailed work discrediting each allegation of this so-called report,' the spokesman added.
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