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Video and photos shared on social media on Thursday showed a
crowd fleeing the meeting in Bukavu in panic and bloodied bodies
on the ground.
Leaders of the M23 rebel group were meeting residents when the
explosions occurred in the central part of Bukavu. Among the
rebel leaders present was Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo
River Alliance (AFC), which includes the M23.
The leaders, including Nangaa, were leaving the podium when two
blasts rocked the scene, according to a journalist present at
the meeting.
Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have swept through the region seizing
key cities and killing some 3,000 people. In a lightning
three-week offensive, the M23 took control of eastern Congo’s
main city Goma and seized the second largest city, Bukavu.
The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring
Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to
march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles
(1,600 kilometers) away.
Rwanda has accused Congo of enlisting ethnic Hutu fighters
responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of minority Tutsis
and moderate Hutus.
M23 says it’s fighting to protect Tutsis and Congolese of
Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform Congo
from a failed state to a modern one. Analysts have called those
pretexts for Rwanda’s involvement.
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