According to an OHCHR spokesperson, the M23 accuses the captives of belonging the national army, with whom they have been involved in clashes
At least 130 sick and wounded men have been abducted from two hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DR Congo) eastern city of Goma by M23 rebels, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) reported on Monday.
The militants seized Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, late in January in their latest offensive against the country’s government, launched at the beginning of the year.
OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said the rebels raided CBCA Ndosho Hospital and took 116 patients, as well as 15 others from Heal Africa Hospital last Friday night, accusing them of being members of the DR Congo army or the pro-government Wazalendo militia.
“It is deeply distressing that M23 is snatching patients from hospital beds in coordinated raids and holding them incommunicado in undisclosed locations,” Shamdasani said in a statement.
She denounced the raids as “arbitrary and abusive” and urged the group to immediately release the abductees and “return them to the hospital so that they can continue their medical treatment.”
The UN report comes just days after the M23 threatened to “hunt” soldiers from the Central African nation’s army, accusing them of carrying out a “terrorist attack” on a rebel rally in Bukavu last Thursday that killed at least 11 people and injured 65 others.
The M23 has yet to respond to the allegations. Instead, its spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, claimed in an X post that DR Congo soldiers and their allies had been attacking Banyamulenge villages in South Kivu Province since Monday morning.
About 7,000 people have been killed since January in escalating clashes in the resource-rich country’s east, where the M23 and other armed groups have been fighting authorities for power and minerals such as gold and diamonds for decades.
Despite international sanctions and Africa-led peace negotiations, the militants have failed to halt their advances. Last month, the M23 captured the South Kivu capital of Bukavu after earlier taking control of Goma.
Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of providing support to the M23 – a claim backed by a UN expert group and Western countries, including the US, Belgium, and the UK. Kigali has denied the allegations, insisting that troops are only stationed on its border with DR Congo for security purposes.
