Human rights group Amnesty International accused the M23 rebels in eastern Congo of killing, torturing, and forcibly disappearing civilian detainees in two rebel-controlled cities.
“These acts violate international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes,” Amnesty said in a statement.
The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January, when the Rwanda-backed M23 advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma in North Kivu province, followed by Bukavu in February.
Amnesty said that between February and April, it interviewed 18 civilians who had been detained by M23 in Goma and Bukavu, after they were accused of supporting the Congolese army or government. The former detainees said that the rebels produced no evidence of these accusations, and several weren’t informed of the reasons for their detention. Several said that they saw fellow detainees die from the harsh conditions and torture.
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