Blasts kill nine in camp for displaced in east DR Congo
Blasts killed at least nine people Friday in a displaced persons camp on the outskirts of Goma in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local sources said.
According to witnesses, "bombs" fell on huts housing displaced people, during fighting between M23 (March 23 movement) rebels and the government.
After eight years of dormancy, the mostly Tutsi M23 rebellion took up arms again in late 2021, seizing large swathes of North Kivu province, some forty kilometres (25 miles) northwest of its provincial capital Goma.
The origin of Friday's blasts has not been clearly established, but government spokesman Patrick Muyaya accused "the Rwandan army and its M23 terrorist supporters" of being responsible on X.
According to Kinshasa, the United Nations and Western countries, neighbouring Rwanda is backing the M23, something Kigali denies.
"I saw nine bodies in front of me" including several children, Dedesi Mitima head of the Lac Vert neighbourhood to the west of Goma, told AFP. Another official gave a provisional death toll of 10.
The huts were either side of the road leading from Goma to the strategic town of Sake, about 20 kilometres from the capital.
The UN estimated at the end of 2023 that nearly seven million people had been displaced in DR Congo, including 2.5 million in North Kivu alone.
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