7,000 killed, 450,000 displaced as eastern Congo fighting intensifies – DRC PM

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA - Some 7,000 people have died since January in fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the prime minister of the DRC told a high-level meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, with combatants and civilians among the dead.

About 3,000 deaths were reported in Goma, Judith Suminwa said, and about 450,0000 people were left without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed.

Since January, the M23 rebel group, which Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing, has captured swathes of eastern Congo including the cities of Goma and Bukavu, and valuable mineral deposits.

The latest fighting, and M23's advance, are part of a major escalation in eastern Congo of a conflict over power, identity and resources dating back to the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s.

Rwanda rejects allegations from Congo, the United Nations and Western powers that it supports M23 rebels with arms and troops.

Suminwa urged the world to act and to impose "dissuasive sanctions" on Rwanda amid mass displacements and summary executions.

"It is impossible to describe the screams and cries of millions of victims of this conflict," she said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres, at the Geneva meeting, said human rights around the world were being "suffocated" and made reference to horrifying abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"If this question of the violation of territorial integrity isn't resolved, the situation could degenerate," Suminwa told Reuters in a press briefing after her address to the Council.

About 40,000 people have fled to Burundi, one of the nine countries that borders the DRC, in two weeks to escape the fighting, the U.N. said on Friday.

Suminwa warned that the worsening security situation with M23 and other armed groups could spill over to neighbouring countries, posing a danger to them.

- REUTERS