(Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s government and Rwandan-backed M23 rebels traded blame on Friday for several explosions at a rally in the rebel-held eastern city of Bukavu that killed 13 people and wounded scores of others the previous day.
The finger-pointing over the deadly incident has further inflamed tensions in eastern Congo – a political and ethnic tinder box – where a rebel advance this year has drawn in neighbouring armies, raising fears of a regional war.
Congo’s army said Rwandan troops, who it accuses of supporting the rebels, fired rockets and grenades into a crowd gathered in Bukavu’s central square for a speech by one of the uprising’s leaders on Thursday.
“The Rwandan army and its (proxies) bombed and fired live ammunition at the civilian population who, although forced to attend this meeting, expressed their disapproval of the Rwandan aggression,” Congo’s interior ministry said in a statement posted on X early on Friday.
A Rwandan government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kigali has repeatedly denied it supports M23.
Corneille Nangaa, leader of a rebel alliance that includes M23, blamed Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi for the violence in Bukavu.
He told a press conference on Thursday that the grenades used were the same type as those used by the Burundian army, which has backed Congo’s military. Reuters could not independently verify this.
Burundi’s army spokesman said none of its soldiers were in Bukavu but did not specifically address the grenade allegation.
Two witnesses told Reuters they saw one attacker attempt to fire a grenade at a convoy of rebel leaders, missing the target and instead killing people gathered at the rally.
“The grenade exploded too soon,” one of the witnesses said. Both said the blast also killed the attacker.
DEAD AND WOUNDED
Outside Bukavu’s general hospital, where a medical source said on Thursday 68 wounded people were being treated, around 30 relatives of victims waited on Friday to identify the remains of those killed.
Congo’s interior ministry said “nearly 100” people were seriously wounded.
The hospital said it would not release any bodies on Friday. A hospital psychologist told grieving families outside the morgue to leave their phone numbers so they could be contacted.
International sanctions, renewed investigations by the International Criminal Court and Africa-led peace negotiations have so far failed to halt the advance of the rebels, who have captured eastern Congo’s two major cities – Goma as well as Bukavu.
The United States last week sanctioned a Rwandan minister, while Britain threatened to pause bilateral aid and impose other diplomatic sanctions on Rwanda unless it withdrew its troops from Congo.
“The sanctions, they have started but they are not enough. The proof is that the Rwandan army is still there,” said Congo’s Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya, who also blamed Rwanda and its rebel allies for Thursday’s attack.
“All these incidents, we will make sure that they are documented and that, when the time comes, justice must be done,” he said.
Kigali says its forces are acting in self-defence against Congolese troops and allied armed groups, it says, have joined forces with Rwandan Hutu rebels – remnants of Rwandan soldiers and militias responsible for the country’s 1994 genocide.
Since January, some 7,000 people have been killed and almost half a million people left without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed in the fighting in eastern Congo, the government says.
The U.N. refugee agency said on Friday that 60,000 people have fled into neighbouring Burundi in the past two weeks, an influx not seen in decades.
(Reporting by Congo newsroom; Additional reporting by Hereward Holland in Nairobi and Emma Farge in Geneva; Writing by Hereward Holland and Joe Bavier; Editing by Silvia Aloisi and Alex Richardson)
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