M23 rebels drag 130 patients from two DRC hospitals
Rwanda denies backing the M23 rebels and claims it’s operating in self-defence against Hutu militias
04 March 2025 - 14:51
byEmma Farge
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M23 rebels sit on a truck during the escort of captured FDLR members to Rwanda for repatriation, at the Goma-Gisenyi Grande Barrier border crossing. Picture: Arlette Bashizi
Geneva — Rwanda-backed M23 rebels launching an offensive in DRC abducted at least 130 sick and wounded men from two hospitals in the city of Goma last week, the UN said on Monday.
M23 fighters raided CBCA Ndosho Hospital and Heal Africa Hospital during the night of February 28, taking 116 and 15 patients respectively, UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.
The abducted men were suspected of being DRC soldiers or members of a pro-government militia known as Wazalendo.
“It is deeply distressing that M23 is snatching patients from hospital beds in coordinated raids and holding them incommunicado in undisclosed locations,” Shamdasani said, calling for their immediate release.
M23 spokespersons Willy Ngoma and Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Tutsi-led M23 marched into the city of Goma at the end of January and have since made an unprecedented advance into the DRC, seizing territory and gaining access to valuable minerals.
Their ongoing advance, which started in late December, is already the gravest escalation a long-running conflict rooted in the spillover into DRC of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of DRC’s vast mineral resources.
DRC, UN experts and Western powers accuse Rwanda of backing the group.
Rwanda denies this and says it is defending itself against ethnic Hutu-led militias bent on slaughtering Tutsis in DRC and threatening Rwanda.
About 7,000 people have been killed in the DRC since January and almost half a million people were left without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed in the fighting, according to the government.
International sanctions, renewed investigations by the International Criminal Court and Africa-led peace negotiations have failed to halt the advance by the rebels, who have captured the DRC’s two major cities, Goma and Bukavu.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
M23 rebels drag 130 patients from two DRC hospitals
Rwanda denies backing the M23 rebels and claims it’s operating in self-defence against Hutu militias
Geneva — Rwanda-backed M23 rebels launching an offensive in DRC abducted at least 130 sick and wounded men from two hospitals in the city of Goma last week, the UN said on Monday.
M23 fighters raided CBCA Ndosho Hospital and Heal Africa Hospital during the night of February 28, taking 116 and 15 patients respectively, UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.
The abducted men were suspected of being DRC soldiers or members of a pro-government militia known as Wazalendo.
“It is deeply distressing that M23 is snatching patients from hospital beds in coordinated raids and holding them incommunicado in undisclosed locations,” Shamdasani said, calling for their immediate release.
M23 spokespersons Willy Ngoma and Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Tutsi-led M23 marched into the city of Goma at the end of January and have since made an unprecedented advance into the DRC, seizing territory and gaining access to valuable minerals.
Their ongoing advance, which started in late December, is already the gravest escalation a long-running conflict rooted in the spillover into DRC of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of DRC’s vast mineral resources.
DRC, UN experts and Western powers accuse Rwanda of backing the group.
Rwanda denies this and says it is defending itself against ethnic Hutu-led militias bent on slaughtering Tutsis in DRC and threatening Rwanda.
About 7,000 people have been killed in the DRC since January and almost half a million people were left without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed in the fighting, according to the government.
International sanctions, renewed investigations by the International Criminal Court and Africa-led peace negotiations have failed to halt the advance by the rebels, who have captured the DRC’s two major cities, Goma and Bukavu.
Reuters
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