Goma (DRC) : 35 victims of the bombing of the Mugunga camp buried, their families plead for peace

On Wednesday, authorities of North Kivu (eastern DRC) organized the burial of victims of the bombing of the Mugunga camp. The families of the victims pleaded for lasting peace while some politicians called on Kinshasa to wage war against Kigali. The governor of North Kivu reassures the displaced that peace will be restored. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The burial saw a strong participation of the inhabitants of Goma, the local civil society, representatives of the provincial administration as well as a delegation from Kinshasa. In all, 35 bodies were buried.

Family members of the victims expressed their wish for lasting peace.

“My sister was killed when we all went to look for food. We learned the bad news when we returned. It’s horrible what we are going through,” reacted Chanceline Umuhoza, sister of one victim.

Other families of the victims find that the government did well to organize the burial of theirs with honor, but that is not enough.

“The authorities should really be concerned about the return of peace to the areas currently occupied by the M23. We want to return home,” they said hopefully.

Some politicians, like Patrick Bala, have asked Kinshasa to launch a war against Kigali.

For his part, the military governor of North Kivu assured the families of the victims that peace will be restored in areas under M23 control.

“The government will do everything to protect civilians remaining in the camps,” declared General Peter Cirimwami Nkuba.

The burial ceremonies also saw the participation of Kinshasa which had sent its spokesperson and Minister of Communication, Patrick Muyaya.

All the victims were buried at the cemetery called “Genocost” located in the Kibati groupment. It is in Nyiragongo, about ten kilometers north of the city of Goma.

The M23 is a former Tutsi rebellion which took up arms again at the end of 2021, accusing the Congolese government of not having respected its commitments on the reintegration of its fighters. Congolese authorities remain convinced that it benefits support from neighboring Rwanda, which is at the origin of the deterioration of relations between the two sister nations of the Great Lakes of Africa.

Rwanda continues to brush aside these allegations, demanding respect for the rights of Rwandan-speaking communities in Congo, threatened by a probable genocide, according to President Paul Kagame.