At least 12 people, including children, have been killed in two bomb explosions in two refugee camps in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to government officials, the United Nations and an aid group.
Friday’s blasts targeted camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near the city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, the United Nations said in a statement.
The attacks, which injured at least 20 people, constituted a “flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and could constitute a war crime,” it said.
A resident of one of the camps told Al Jazeera that many of the victims were sleeping in their tents when the area came under attack.
“We started running when the bombs were fired at the camp,” the resident said.
The Congolese military and the United States accused the military in neighboring Rwanda and the M23 rebel group of being behind the attacks.
Lt. Col. Guillaume Njike Kaiko, a spokesman for the DRC army in the region, said the attacks were in retaliation for previous DRC attacks on Rwandan army positions in which weapons and ammunition were destroyed.
In a social media post, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya also blamed the M23, which has taken over parts of North Kivu over the past two years.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations and Western countries said Rwanda was supporting 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 M23.
In one
Increasing fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee neighboring towns towards Goma, which lies between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border and is largely cut off from the interior.
The international charity Save The Children said it was present in one of the camps when shells fell near a busy market square. It said dozens were injured, mostly women and children, and the final death toll was unclear.
“A tent doesn’t provide much protection from shelling,” said Greg Ramm, the aid group’s country director in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The protection of civilians, especially children and families living in refugee camps, must be a priority,” he said, calling on “all parties to the conflict to stop using explosive weapons near populated areas.”
President Felix Tshisekedi, who was traveling in Europe, decided to return home after Friday’s bombings, a statement from his office said.
Tshisekedi has long claimed that Rwanda is destabilizing the Democratic Republic of Congo by supporting the M23 rebels.
The bombings followed the group’s capture of the strategic mining town of Rubaya this week. The city has deposits of tantalum, which is derived from coltan, a key ingredient in the production of smartphones.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller condemned the attack and said it was “essential that all states respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The United States strongly condemns today’s attack by Rwandan Defense Forces and M23 positions on the Mugunga camp for internally displaced persons in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is important that all states respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
—Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) May 3, 2024
The Democratic Republic of Congo branch of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said its teams had to halt distribution of essential supplies and medical consultations on Friday because of increasing insecurity.
This morning in Goma, DR Congo:
While our teams carried out medical operations and distributed emergency shelter, there was heavy fighting in the immediate vicinity of the refugee camps.
We heard heavy artillery landing in densely populated areas. According to reports, several people… pic.twitter.com/zaEWn3prvX
– Doctors Without Borders (@MSF_USA) May 3, 2024
In a post on
French President Emmanuel Macron said during a joint press conference with Tshisekedi in Paris this week that Rwanda must end its support for M23.
About six million people have been killed since violence erupted in 1996. Some seven million people have also been displaced, many of them beyond the reach of aid.