Eleven killed in “M23 attacks” in DRC’s North Kivu province

At least 11 people were killed Sunday in Democratic Republic of Congo’s province of North Kivu, in the attacks attributed to rebel group M23.
The local population told the media the incident occurred in Rutshuru territory, dozens of kilometers from Goma, the provincial capital. “I’m at the scene, and there are 11 civilian corpses in front of me, some shot, others stabbed”, a resident of Bukombo told the media.
“There are no fighters among them,” he added. A leader of a civil society group who asked not to be named also told the media that the corpses were found after M23 rebel group fighters retreated. “The rebels left with people they forced to carry their luggage. When they reached Bukombo-centre, they killed them,” the source said.
M23 rebel group backed by neighboring Rwanda controls swaths of territory in the North Kivu. The group launched a new offensive in eastern DRC in March last year, seizing towns and villages in the area that borders Uganda, forcing more than one million people to flee.