The M23 rebels are perpetrating summary killings and rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – and they are doing it with the backing of the regime of Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame. That was the conclusion of Amnesty International’s investigation, released in February, into the ongoing violence against the Congolese people.
The report tells how the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) rebels, a group the UN says is being armed and supported by Kigali – claims denied by Kagame but supported by the US and several African and European nations – have systematically used sexual violence as a weapon to punish and humiliate its perceived enemies. The scale and brutality is shocking.
