source: Human Rights Watch

published: 7 February 2025

Image Credit: worradmu at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The United Nations Human Rights Council today agreed by consensus to launch an urgent fact-finding mission and commission of inquiry into atrocities being committed by all parties to the armed conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The council reached its decision during a special session on the crisis, held at Congo’s request with support from 48 countries from all regions.

During recent fighting in North and South Kivu provinces, the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group seized control of the city of Goma from the Congolese army and its allied militias. Human rights groups, the UN, and the media have reported summary killings, rapes including gang rapes, looting, and unlawful forced labor and conscription.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed concern last week that the recent fighting “risks deepening … much further” the risk of conflict-related sexual violence, which has been “an appalling feature of armed conflict in eastern DRC for decades.”

The commission of inquiry—which was called for by 79 Congolese, regional, and international rights groups—will investigate and report on abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law by the warring parties, collect and preserve evidence of international crimes, and identify those responsible for atrocities to support efforts to hold them accountable.

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