Kishishe massacre

For over a year, M23 militias have been escalating attacks in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A mainly Tutsi rebellion defeated in 2013, the M23 (“March 23 Movement”) took up arms again at the end of 2021.

In the M23's view, the Congolese government has not been able to protect their diverse interests––their security, investments, political power and had failed to honour a pledge to integrate its fighters into the army.[7][8] To safeguard these assets, the M23 has committed summary executions and forced recruitment of civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.[9] The Tutsi community occupies a precarious position in North Kivu, between privilege and discrimination. Its leaders are some of the wealthiest landowners and entrepreneurs in the region.[10] These privileges have positioned the Tutsi community precariously in Congolese society, alternately benefitting from access to state power and suffering virulent discrimination, being persecuted and participating in brutal rebellions.[11]

For the locals, they see M23 as a Rwandan-backed rebellion that is massively looting minerals among other natural resources in North Kivu.[12][13][14][15]

The attack took place in Kishishe village, in the Bambo groupement, in the chiefdom of Bwito, about 34 kilometers from Rwindi. According to provincial officials, NGOs, the United Nations, and human rights activists, the M23 made incursions to several villages with soldiers who allegedly came from Mabenga and Tongo.[16] The rebels were wearing military uniforms, described by some as new and different from the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) uniforms, as well as helmets and bulletproof vests, and spoke Kinyarwanda.[17] The rebels carried out their first foray into the Tongo groupement, where over 64 people were killed in the villages of Muhindo, Rusekera and Bugina.[18] After executing civilians in the villages of the Tongo groupement, the insurgents made their second foray into the Bambo groupement, where they cursorily killed civilians in the Kishishe, Kirumba, and Kapopi villages and looted medical centers in the areas it controlled, looking for enemy.[19] The provincial deputies believe the death toll is more than 131 people killed, including almost all of the Kishishe village, where around sixty civilians were killed in the Kishishe Adventist Church, including 3 children.[20][21][22][23] They also systematically looted standing crops and transported them to their camps, notably in Tshanzu. The rebels forced civilians, including women and children, to work in the fields or do chores and calling them “FDLR sympathizers”.[24] The massacre left around 300 people dead, including 17 children, according to provincial deputies.[25][26] According to investigators from the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) and the United Nation mission in the DRC, 131 civilians were killed by the M23 in Kishishe and Bambo.[27][28]

The reaction was widespread after the massacre and provoked outrage and revulsion among the Congolese populace as well as prominent opposition politicians. After the representatives and dignitaries of the local administration of Bwito condemned these crimes, the President of the Republic, Felix Tshisekedi, firmly condemned the killings on Friday, December 2, 2022.[29] On the same Friday, Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwenge was also indignant of the massacre.[30] The MONUSCO, the United Nations peacekeeping mission, demands an investigation and the ambassador of the European Union (EU) in the Democratic Republic of Congo calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and respect for International humanitarian law (IHL).[31] Some world powers, including British Development Minister Andrew Mitchell, expressed their concern and outrage at the massacre.[32] The NGODH, a consortium of human rights organizations in North Kivu, demanded the United Nations and the Congolese government seize the International Criminal Court (ICC).[33]

• Beni massacre
• Kipupu Massacre
• Mutarule
• Lemera
• Mulenge
• 2020 Democratic Republic of the Congo attacks