M23 rebels held a symbolic funeral in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, for 22 people killed in a drone strike earlier this month, according to the Associated Press.
The rebels said the Jan. 2 attack targeted their military positions in Masisi territory in North Kivu, and they said the victims were civilians. M23 also said the strikes used “so-called kamikaze drones” and that three other people were buried on site, while dozens were injured as a result of the explosions.
The ceremony took place at Unity Stadium in Goma and was attended by M23 administration officials, representatives of religious groups, and hundreds of family members of the victims. The bodies, accompanied by relatives, had been transferred the day before from Masisi to the provincial capital, the AP reported.
In the meantime, the government of Congo rejected the rebels’ account. Patrick Muyaya, the spokesperson for the Congolese government, said on X that Thursday’s funeral was “the height of indecency and inhumanity.” He added that “The mass graves, the bodies abandoned by the roadside, the villages emptied of their inhabitants,” and said “No ceremony, no staged event, no fabricated narrative can erase the reality of these crimes, nor absolve the father #Rwanda and the #M23 who planned, ordered, and executed them.”
The AP reported that the Congolese army, FARDC, had not commented on the attack. During the funeral, administrators described the events and the difficulties of moving victims. Emmanuel Ndizeye, administrator of the Masisi territory, said the area had been hit by “a series of bombings” and that insecurity and the condition of roads in some localities prevented evacuation, leaving victims to be buried on site.
The AP also cited medical testimony on the immediate impact. Théophile Kubuya Hangi, medical director of Masisi General Hospital, told the AP the facility received 47 wounded after the explosions, and he said “Twenty-two people died from their injuries. Fourteen wounded are still hospitalized and receiving care.” One injured person, Promesse Hagenimana, said she was standing on the road in front of a concrete house when the house exploded. “We were standing on the road in front of a concrete house. Moments later, the house exploded before our eyes,” Hagenimana said. She also described throwing herself to the ground, saying a little boy next to her was dead, and said she ran to the hospital before losing consciousness.
At the ceremony, M23 named Erasto Musanga as governor of North Kivu in its administration and he accused Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi of responsibility for the violence. Musanga said Tshisekedi was “killing more people,” and he threatened legal action through the M23’s own justice system, according to the AP.
Even as M23 put forward a toll it characterized as civilian deaths, the AP reported that at least one expert questioned that number. Researcher Stewart Muhindo from the Kinshasa-based Ebuteli research center said the “figure of 22 civilians killed is greatly exaggerated,” and he said it could be intended to elicit sympathy from the international community. Muhindo said that based on sources on the ground in Masisi, the actual number of civilian casualties did not appear to exceed a dozen, and that some coffins presented could contain the bodies of combatants killed in fighting.
The funeral took place against a wider backdrop of negotiations and regional accusations. The AP said the burial came as M23 engages in ongoing negotiations with the Congolese government to end decades of fighting. The AP also said Congo, the U.S. and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which has grown from hundreds of members in 2021 to around 6,500 fighters, according to the U.N. The AP added that the conflict in eastern Congo has produced one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, according to the U.N. agency for refugees. Despite a deal between the Congolese and Rwandan governments brokered by the U.S. and ongoing negotiations between rebels and Congo, fighting continued on several fronts in eastern Congo, with civilians and military casualties reported.