Michel hid in the outdoor lavatory of his church in Kishishe, a town in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), praying that M23 rebels would not find him.
That day, Nov. 29 last year, the rebels raided the town of thousands of people and committed their worst-recorded massacre since launching their campaign in late 2021.
More than 170 civilians were killed, UN data showed.
Photo: AFP
“They told them to sit on the edge of a hole and they started shooting them,” said Michel, who witnessed the killings from his hiding place.
M23 rebels had captured Kishishe a week earlier, but they swept back into the town again that morning searching for Mai-Mai militiamen who attacked them and then hid inside houses, residents said.
The M23 — which is allegedly backed by Rwanda — has captured swathes of territory in eastern DR Congo’s North Kivu province and advanced within several dozen kilometres of its capital, Goma.
More than 900,000 people have fled its advance, the UN’s International Organization for Migration says.
The Tutsi-led militia has gained strategic toeholds across North Kivu, including lucrative border posts and control of most roads leading to Goma.
However, its capture of Kishishe was resonant for another reason: The town had long been a bastion of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda — which is linked to the Rwandan Hutu groups that carried out the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.
The M23 recently withdrew from Kishishe.
Reporters visited the town on Wednesday last week. All of the names of interviewees have been changed to help protect their safety.
Residents described M23 fighters as launching a hunt in Kishishe on Nov. 29 last year, going door-to-door and slaughtering any men or boys they found.
Michel, standing near a mass grave by the church where he had hidden, clasped his hands together as he recounted the attack.
Dozens of people had taken refuge in the church, but to no avail, Michel said.
“They started killing everywhere,” the 40-year-old farmer said. “They said every man who was there had to disappear from the Earth.”
Standing close by, another resident pointed to the top of a hill, where he said “there are more bodies.”
Bullet casings littered the ground on the hilltop, which had also had defensive trenches cut into the earth and a freshly dug grave in a cassava patch.
“Four people are buried here,” said a farmer, pointing to the grave.
Along a path further on, several corpses were decomposing in the open air. One man vomited from the overpowering smell.
A small group of women and children returning from the fields passed by without looking, seemingly unfazed.
The corpses did not appear to have been there long and it was not clear under what circumstances they were killed.
Fabrice, a Kishishe resident, said that M23 rebels forced him to dig graves, but added that the rebels had cremated some of the people.
He said he had seen 33 killings.
The exact death toll in Kishishe remains unclear.
In February, the UN put the figure at 171, but other estimates are lower.
Amnesty International said that rebels killed at least 20 people.
A village elder told reporters that 120 deaths had occurred between Nov. 22 and 29 last year, producing a handwritten three-page list of names from his pocket.
“If they found a 14-year-old boy or a man, they killed them, even if they didn’t have a weapon,” he said.
Another list detailing the death toll, circulating in Kishishe, contains only 18 names.
One witness said that this list was drawn up in December last year — under the eyes of M23 fighters — when three people who said they were journalists arrived from Rwanda.
They later reported their findings in Rwandan media.
The DR Congo has repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing the M23, a charge that Kigali denies.
The US, several other Western countries as well as independent UN experts have also concluded that Rwanda is backing the rebels.
Life has begun to return to the streets of Kishishe since the M23 left, but the wounds of its occupation are still fresh, and an air of uncertainty hangs over residents who have been left to fend for themselves.
Neither the Congolese army, UN peacekeepers nor soldiers from a joint East African military force deployed in the region have arrived to secure the town.
The M23 has withdrawn to a position 20km from Kishishe.
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