Rwanda-backed rebels committed possible war crimes in eastern Congo, rights group says

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - 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 on Tuesday.

"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.

They were held in overcrowded, unsanitary cells without sufficient food, water, sanitation facilities or health care, according to the rights group. Several said that they saw fellow detainees die from the harsh conditions, and torture.

Some described how they witnessed M23 fighters kill two detainees with hammers and shoot another who died on the spot.

All of the former detainees interviewed by Amnesty said that they were either tortured or witnessed M23 fighters torture others in detention, describing severe beatings with wooden rods, electric cables or engine belts.

The rights group said that relatives looked for their loved ones at the detention sites, but M23 fighters often refused to grant them access or denied that their relatives were there, which Amnesty said amounts to enforced disappearances.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world's most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced, including 100,000 who fled homes this year.

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, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the east.

Despite Congo's army and M23 having agreed to work toward a truce last month, fighting between the two sides continues.