{"id":55308,"date":"2025-08-21T12:19:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T12:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/afc-m23-dismisses-human-rights-watch-allegations-of-virunga-mass-killings\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T12:07:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T12:07:19","slug":"afc-m23-dismisses-human-rights-watch-allegations-of-virunga-mass-killings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/afc-m23-dismisses-human-rights-watch-allegations-of-virunga-mass-killings\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC\/M23 dismisses Human Rights Watch allegations of Virunga mass killings"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a statement released on August 20, 2025, the armed group described the HRW report as \u201cfake, politically motivated, and an instrument of propaganda\u201d aimed at demonising the AFC\/M23. <\/p>\n

The report, according to HRW, accused the M23 of targeting primarily ethnic Hutu civilians during the alleged killings in the Virunga region.<\/p>\n

The statement, issued by the AFC\/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, criticised HRW\u2019s methodology, saying the organisation relied on unverified telephone testimonies and satellite imagery without on-the-ground verification. <\/p>\n

Kanyuka also accused the report of ignoring atrocities committed by other armed groups in the area, including coalition forces of the Kinshasa regime, the FDLR, Nyatura militias, PARECO, and Wazalendo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Human Rights Watch report of August 20th, 2025, is fake and falsification of reality. Its methodology is fraudulent, its sources are corrupt, and its context is truncated,\u201d the statement reads. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is based on no tangible evidence, only on hearsay, deceptively interpreted imagery, and complicit silence regarding the crimes of the coalition forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group insisted that the HRW report serves to divert attention from what it described as \u201cmilitary failures and crimes against humanity\u201d committed by the Kinshasa regime.<\/p>\n

The AFC\/M23 rebel group is currently engaged in ongoing peace processes in Doha, Qatar, aimed at ending the conflict in eastern DRC, where the rebels accuse government forces of targeting Kinyarwanda-speaking communities through marginalisation and violence.<\/p>\n

\"AFC\/M23<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The AFC\/M23 rebel coalition has strongly rejected allegations made by Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the group was responsible for the summary execution of more than 140 civilians in July 2025 across at least 14 villages and farming communities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000092878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55308","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":2000092878,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911-e360e_1_.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911-e360e_1_.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911-e360e_1_.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911-e360e_1_.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911-e360e_1_.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911-e360e_1_.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55308","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=55308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000092878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55308"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55308"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}