At least 773 people were killed in the largest city of Goma in eastern Congo and its surroundings this week in the middle of the fights with rebels supported by Rwanda who captured the city in a major climbing of a conflict December, Congolese authorities announced on Saturday. The advance of the rebels in other areas was slowed down by a weakened soldier who recovered certain villages.
The authorities have confirmed 773 organizations and 2,880 injured in the Morgues and Hospitals of Goma, the Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told a briefing in the capital, Kinshasa, adding that the number of deaths could be higher.
“These figures remain temporary because the rebels have asked the population to clean the streets of Goma. There should be mass pits and the Rwandans have taken care to evacuate theirs,” said Muyaya.
Hundreds of residents of Goma returned to the city on Saturday after the rebels promised to restore the basic services, including the supply of water and electricity. They cleaned up the districts strewn with arms debris and filled with blood sugar.
“I am tired and I don’t know what path. [there] is mourning, “said Jean Marcus, 25, one of whom was among the people killed in the fighting.
M23 is the most powerful of more than 100 armed groups in the running for control in the East Rich in minerals in the Congo, which contains large deposits essential to a large part of the world’s technology. They are supported by around 4,000 neighboring Rwanda soldiers, according to UN experts – much more than in 2012, when they captured Goma and held him for days in a conflict led by ethnic grievances.
While the fighting raged with the M23 rebels on Saturday, the Congolese army took over the villages of Sanzi, Muganzo and Mukwidja in the territory of Kalehe of the South Kivu, which had fallen to the rebels earlier this week, according to two officials of Civil society that spoke to the partners Press the state of anonymity on fear for their safety.
The army of the Central African nation was weakened after losing hundreds of soldiers and foreign mercenaries went to the rebels after the fall of Goma.
Goma’s seizure has led to a disastrous humanitarian crisis, the UN and the aid group said. Goma serves as a critical humanitarian center for many of the six million people displaced by the conflict in eastern Congo. The rebels said they would walk to the capital of Congo, Kinshasa, 1,600 kilometers to the west.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric also said on Friday that the World Health Organization and its partners had carried out an assessment with the Congo government between January 26 and 26, and reported that 700 people had been killed and 2,800 injured in Goma and nearby. Dujarric confirmed at AP that deaths had taken place at that time.
The rebellious advance left in its wake extrajudicial murders and a forced conscription of civilians, the spokesman for the United Nations Human Rights Office, Jeremy Laurence said on Friday. “We have also documented summary executions of at least 12 people per m23” from January 26 to 28, said Laurence, adding that the group also occupied schools and hospitals in the province and submits civilians to a forced conscription and for forced work.
Congolese forces have also been accused of sexual violence while the fight against rages in the region, said Laurence, adding that the UN checks that Congolese troops violated 52 women in southern Kivu.
The capture of Goma brought humanitarian operations to “a stop, cutting a vital rescue buoy for the delivery of the aid in the east [Congo]”Said Rose Tchwenko, director of the Mercy Corps Aid Group in Congo.
