Congo Mourns Its Dead After Rebels Capture Key City of Goma

Mechanical Kopači spent days by digging a dark, volcanic land of the city of Gom, preparing long trenches in which the victims of one of the most dead battles in the Democratic Republic of Congo will bury the victims of Congo in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Humanitarian workers in Hazmat suits and teenagers in flip-flopas and dirty masks took refuge in the dead in the midst of a huge stench.

“We are ahead of us mass funerals,” said Myriam Favier, head of the Red Cross International Committee in Gomi.

Almost 3000 people were killed in a bunch last week, according to early estimates provided by the UN Peace Operation to Eastern Congo. The struggle between the M23, the rebel group, which the UN says is funded by Rwanda, and the Congole’s Armed Forces resulted in a rebel capture of Gom last week.

Millions have died in the last 30 years in Congo, where ethnic tensions and struggles have erupted in several wars for approaching land and mineral resources. But there are rarely so many killed in just a few days, experts said.

Although most struggles have stopped in the crowd in recent days, the city’s arrest M23 rebels caused the fear of the wider war between Kong, Rwanda and their allies.

The number of deaths is probably undervalued, according to Vivian van de Perre, the Deputy Chief of the UN Peace Force, based in Gomi.

Many bodies still have to be collected in the areas of GOMA that are unavailable humanitarian organizations. More than 2,800 additional congols were wounded and nearly two -thirds of them civilians, according to the Red Cross International Committee.

The conflict that has been underway has already withdrew mercenaries from Eastern Europe and soldiers from Allied countries such as Burundi and Uganda. The UN Peace Forces, which have been arranged in Eastern Congo for ten years, accused both sides of not doing enough of finishing the fight.

On January 26, the M23 launched his intrusion to Goma and completely captured the city on January 30, after a months -long offensive. More than 700,000 people have been displaced.

In front of the city airport on Tuesday, dozens of volunteers and workers of the Red Cross intervened victims in mass graves dug on an already overcrowded cemetery.

The country where the bodies can be buried in the crowd is limited, said Mrs. Favier. The city extinguished Rwanda on the east side, Lake Kiva on its southern coast, and camps for displaced people and territories under the control of the M23 in its eastern and northern areas.

Rwanda denied the support of the M23, even while officials from the United Nations point out that his army and intelligence services train, handle and command rebels. Experts say Rwanda seeks to use mineral resources in the eastern Congo using the M23 as a proxy group.

Ever since they captured Goma, the M23 fighters have patrolled through the streets on vehicles seized from the Congol army. They wear tactical equipment and wear automatic rifles and sophisticated electronic devices that give them the appearance of a conventional army.

This week, the rebel leaders threatened to attack the UN base, which had 2,000 Congoles made if the peace forces did not hand over them. Those who are protected in the base include high Congolese military and intelligence officials, the mayor of the City and civil servants, according to UN officials.

On Wednesday, the M23 interrupted the one -sided fire that had declared days earlier and captured the village in the neighboring province of Goma in southern Kivu.

Among many victims buried this week was the celebrated local boxer, Jean de Dieu Baleszi, known as Kibomango, who was killed by strayers, according to his relatives. Mr. Balezi founded the Boxing Club of Friendship, where he trained generations of young boxers who were children’s soldiers, Recruited by armed groups like M23 in the Eastern Congo.

The M23 ordered the locals to clean up Goma streets, but remain full of military uniforms left by Congolian soldiers.

“Wherever I sweep, I find them,” Anna Mapendo said as she showed dozens of bullets collected in her yard. Mrs. Mapendo and her husband said that about 20 Kongoa soldiers broke into their home last week to escape the M23 fighter who attacked the airport sitting behind their house.

Two of their sons were wounded with bullets while they were in their yard, Mrs. Mapendo said. She just returned from the hospital to bring them rice and cassava.

Désiré Mirim, Mrs. Mapendo’s husband, accused congenoconial soldiers of plundering their home as they fled the rebels. “For now, we feel safe with a new one,” Mr. Mirri said, referring to M23. “But we know it’s very insecure.”

On Wednesday, the pockets of the city remained unavailable for humanitarian agencies that lost months of help in robbery last week. Medicine, rice bags from the World Food Program and Cooking Tin Oil were on sale all over the city.

The freezing of the side of the help that Trump’s administration announced last week caused an alarm because of the exacerbating situation in Eastern Congo, which was already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

Caleb KABANDA contributions to reporting from Goma and Justin configured from Kinshas, ​​the Democratic Republic of Congo.