At least 12 people, including children, were killed in bomb attacks on two camps for displaced people in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province on Friday. The attacks, which hit camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga near the city of Goma, were condemned by the United Nations as a “flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime”. The Congolese army blamed the attacks on an alleged rebel group, known as M23, with links to Rwanda. However, M23 denied involvement and blamed Congolese forces. UN experts and the US State Department have accused Rwanda of backing the M23, but Rwanda denies the claims. The bombings follow the M23 rebel group’s capture of the strategic mining town of Rubaya this week, which holds deposits of tantalum, a key component in the production of smartphones. The decadeslong conflict in eastern Congo has produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with over 100 armed groups fighting in the region, most for land and control of mines with valuable minerals.
Congo Bombings Kill at Least 12 in Displacement Camps
