{"id":54554,"date":"2025-06-19T10:18:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T10:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/un-human-rights-chief-details-appalling-abuses-by-drc-army-and-allies\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T10:12:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T10:12:22","slug":"un-human-rights-chief-details-appalling-abuses-by-drc-army-and-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/un-human-rights-chief-details-appalling-abuses-by-drc-army-and-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"UN human rights chief details \u2018appalling\u2019 abuses by DRC army and allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a detailed briefing to the UN Human Rights Council on June 16, T\u00fcrk revealed that Congolese soldiers, alongside members of the pro-government Wazalendo militia, have engaged in killings, rapes, and looting during military operations, particularly in North and South Kivu provinces. <\/p>\n

The abuses have occurred amid the Congolese army\u2019s offensives against M23 rebels and other armed groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongolese soldiers and members of the DRC-backed Wazalendo militia killed, raped, and looted,\u201d said T\u00fcrk, citing preliminary findings from an ongoing fact-finding mission. <\/p>\n

He expressed concern over a \u201ccomplete disregard\u201d for the protection of civilians during and after combat, particularly during the battle for Goma in late January, where command structures reportedly collapsed as army units retreated.<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrk\u2019s statements follow months of warnings from human rights groups about atrocities committed by Congolese forces and their militia allies. On May 23, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented widespread abuses by Wazalendo fighters in South Kivu, including attacks on Banyamulenge villages near Bibokoboko in early March. <\/p>\n

Witnesses said the fighters targeted civilians based on ethnicity, declaring Banyamulenge to be \u201cRwandan\u201d and vowing to \u201cclean them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey killed seven people and destroyed homes, health centres, and schools,\u201d a local community leader told HRW.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s findings put further scrutiny on President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi\u2019s administration, which has formed alliances with numerous militias, including the FDLR, accused of involvement in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, to bolster its military campaign in the east. <\/p>\n

Analysts and activists have raised alarm over the government\u2019s apparent weaponisation of anti-Tutsi sentiment to justify violence against Congolese Tutsi communities under the pretext of fighting M23.<\/p>\n

Despite the gravity of the allegations, Kinshasa has publicly celebrated the UN\u2019s decision in February to establish an independent investigative mechanism into atrocities in the east. Government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya praised the resolution on X, but critics say the administration has tried to downplay or deny war crimes committed by its own forces.<\/p>\n

Civil society groups and international observers are now questioning whether President Tshisekedi will be held accountable for what they describe as a campaign of ethnic persecution and possible crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker T\u00fcrk, has sharply condemned widespread human rights violations by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)\u2019s military and its allied militias, calling the situation in eastern DRC \u201cappalling in magnitude and scope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000089354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000089354,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/20250618092602000000.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/20250618092602000000.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/20250618092602000000.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/20250618092602000000.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/20250618092602000000.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/20250618092602000000.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000089354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54554"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54554"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}