M23 rejects HRW findings linking group to over 140 civilian deaths in DRC
According to M23, the allegations were neither new nor credible, having already been raised by the United Nations Human Rights offices earlier this month and dismissed in a separate document M23 released on August 7.
The M23 rebel group has rejected a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that linked it to massacres around Virunga National Park, eastern DR Congo, where at least 140 civilians were killed in July.
In a statement on X, the group described the report, published on August 20, as a fabrication aimed at demonising M23 and shielding what it called the "kakistocratic regime" in Kinshasa.
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According to M23, the allegations were neither new nor credible, having already been raised by the United Nations Human Rights offices earlier this month and dismissed in a separate document M23 released on August 7.
"These baseless allegations, where each organisation presents its unverified death toll from different areas, were previously denounced in our document, 'Denunciation of Unverified and Politically Motivated Allegations against the AFC/M23', published on August 7, 2025," the statement, issued by spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka on Wednesday, reads.
Further, M23 insisted that the allegations are anchored on "unverified and politically motivated" claims circulated by groups aligned to the Congolese government.
As evidence of bias, the statement pointed to images showing senior HRW officials and international journalists alongside what the rebels described as extremist propagandists allied to Kinshasa.
"The accusations from the UN joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCR) are politically motivated and supported by organisations aligned with the kakistocratic regime in Kinshasa," it said.
Additionally, M23 maintained that the methodology employed by HRW was so flawed that it invalidated the findings altogether.
According to M23, the report relied on telephone testimonies allegedly sourced from government operatives, as well as satellite imagery without on-the-ground verification.
"The allegations primarily rely on: unverified telephone testimonies gathered from notorious extremists and operatives of the Kinshasa regime, satellite imagery without correlated physical evidence, which cannot constitute proof of attribution," the statement reads.
Similarly, M23 took issue with HRW for failing to consider the involvement of other armed factions operating in the Virunga region.
"The Virunga region is a theatre of complex operations involving the coalition forces of the Kinshasa regime, which include the FDLR terrorists (Rwandan genocide perpetrators), Nyatura militias, PARECO and Wazalendo groups whose atrocities against civilians have, ironically, been documented by HRW itself in other reports," M23 said.
"HRW is guilty of narrative bias and wrongly accuses the M23. This omission is not an error; it is a strategic choice to serve the propaganda of the Kinshasa regime."
M23 also argued that the timing of the report was intended to distract the international community from what they described as repeated ceasefire violations and crimes against humanity committed by DRC government forces and their allies.
"This report is an insult to the truth and to the very principles of human rights it claims to defend. Its methodology is fraudulent, its sources are corrupt, and its context is truncated," M23 said.
"It is based on no tangible evidence, only on hearsay, deceptively interpreted imagery, and complicit silence regarding the crimes of the coalition forces. We reject this fanciful report in the strongest possible terms."
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