Images of unspeakable horror from the DRC

The Democratic Republic of Congo has witnessed horrific massacres

Published on:

28 Jul 2024, 12:55 pm

In recent weeks, the Democratic Republic of Congo has witnessed horrific massacres.

Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.

Join us for BizNews' first investment-focused conference on Thursday, 12 September, in Hermanus, featuring top experts like Frans Cronje, Piet Viljoen, and more. Get insights on electricity and exploiting SA's gas bounty from new and familiar faces. Register here.

By Chris Steyn

The charred corpse of a man who died in agony. A decapitated head in a plastic bag. The bodies of children executed on top of their slain mothers…

These are just some of the horrific images of the victims of massacres and attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in recent weeks.

The DRC is where almost a dozen South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members have died on deployment this year.

The photographs shared with BizNews depict a recent massacre in the DRC's northeastern Ituri province where there have been almost 200 attacks since the start of the year. This one claimed the lives of nearly everyone in one village, 15 children, 10 women and five men.

According to sources in the area, there are dark forces at play in the conflict between the Rwandan-back M23 rebel group – which has repeatedly seized large parts of North Kivu – and The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC).

Also active are two other armed groups: The (Ugandan-backed) Cooperative for Development of the Congo (CODECO) and the notorious Islamic State (IS)-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

"People think it's just militias and AK47s, but it's a real war, MiG fighters, mortars, etc."

One source warns that the SANDF is "in danger of being given false intelligence".

"If SANDF are aware of misleading intelligence, then that is good, but if not aware then it will lead to more deaths. I do know who they can trust for military intelligence…"

This source further reveals that certain sections of FARDC do not want to fight M23. "There are spies in the friendly forces tipping off the enemy…"

It is believed that the violence in Ituri province is escalating as SADC (The Southern African Development Community) forces are managing to gain some ground in North Kivu.

However the situation in North Kivu's capital of Goma "is very tense" following the latest atrocities in that area.

The sources also shared a video of the victims of a Rwandan/M23 torture technique called Akandoya in which women had their hands tied behind their backs at the elbows before being thrown into the river. Their bodies had been mutilated too.

"All this destabilisation is being run by Kagame on behalf of global supply chains. It is all about the minerals..," BizNews was told.

* According to the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), this year (2024), more than 25.4 million people – a quarter of the population – require assistance, with the most urgent humanitarian needs concentrated in the eastern provinces.

"Until 31 December 2023, more than 9.6 million people were on the move in DRC, including 6.5 million internally displaced persons, 2.6 million returnees and 527,000 refugees, making the displacement crisis in the country one of the largest in the world and second only to Sudan.

"Epidemics are significantly spread, particularly cholera with 50,000 suspected cases and 470 deaths recorded in 2023 – the worst situation since 2017. Measles transmission more than doubled in 2023, exceeding 320,000 cases (versus 146,000 in 2022), while deaths caused by measles tripled, from 1,800 in 2022 to over 6,000 in 2023.

"Climate shocks are worsening vulnerable people's living conditions, with heavy rains and river flooding affecting some 2.1 million Congolese and leaving 300 others dead, just between mid-November 2023 and January 2024."

Read also:

ADF militants