At least 12 people, including children, were killed in two bombings that hit two camps for displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to government officials, the United Nations and a humanitarian organization.
Friday’s explosions targeted the Lac Vert and Mugunga camps, near the city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province, the UN said in a statement.
These attacks, during which at least 20 people were injured, constitute a “flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and could constitute a war crime,” according to the press release.
A resident of one of the camps told Al Jazeera that many victims were sleeping in their tents when the area was attacked.
“We started running as bombs were falling on the camp,” the resident said.
The Congolese army and the United States have accused the soldiers of neighboring Rwanda and Rebel group M23 to be at the origin of the attacks.
On Saturday, Rwanda denied the US accusations, calling them “ridiculous”.
Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) are a “professional army” that will never attack displaced people. In an article on X, Makolo instead blamed the assault on militias supported by the Congolese army.
Lt. Col. Guillaume Njike Kaiko, a spokesperson for the DRC army in the region, said the attacks were retaliation for earlier DRC strikes against Rwandan army positions in which weapons and ammunition had been destroyed.
In a social media post, government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya also blamed the M23, which has taken control of large swaths of North Kivu over the past two years.
The DRC, the UN and Western countries have said Rwanda supports the group in its attempt to control mines and mineral resources. Rwanda has denied the allegations.
Al Jazeera’s Fintan Monaghan reported that the shells were fired from an area controlled by the M23.
The group denied any role in the attacks and instead blamed DRC forces, in a statement published on X.
THE intensification of fighting in eastern DRC has forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee neighboring towns towards Goma, located between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border and largely cut off from the interior of the country.
International charity Save The Children said it was present at one of the camps when shells struck near a busy market. Dozens of people were injured, most of them women and children, and the final death toll remains uncertain.
“A tent doesn’t offer much protection against bombing,” said Greg Ramm, the humanitarian group’s country director in the DRC.
“The protection of civilians, particularly children and families living in internally displaced persons camps, must be a priority,” he said, calling on “all parties to the conflict to end the use of weapons explosives near populated areas.
President Félix Tshisekedi, who was traveling in Europe, decided to return home on Friday following the attacks, indicates a press release from his office.
Tshisekedi has long claimed that Rwanda is destabilizing the DRC by supporting the M23 rebels.
The attacks follow the group’s capture of the strategic mining town of Rubaya this week. The city has deposits of tantalum, extracted from coltan, a key element in the production of smartphones.
Condemning the attack, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said it was “essential that all states respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The United States strongly condemns today’s attack by Rwanda Defense Forces and M23 positions on the Mugunga IDP camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is essential that all States respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
– Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) May 3, 2024
The Congolese branch of the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its teams had to stop distributing essential items and suspend medical consultations on Friday due to growing insecurity.
Earlier today in Goma, DR Congo:
While our teams were carrying out medical activities and distributing shelter kits, intense fighting broke out in the immediate vicinity of the IDP camps.
We heard heavy artillery landing in densely populated areas. Several people would have been… pic.twitter.com/zaEWn3prvX
– Doctors Without Borders (@MSF_USA) May 3, 2024
In a post on X, the group condemned “the increasingly regular use of heavy artillery” near internally displaced persons sites around Goma.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Rwanda must stop supporting the M23, during a joint press conference with Tshisekedi in Paris this week.
About six million people have been killed since the violence began in 1996. It has also displaced around seven million people, many of whom are beyond the reach of aid.
