Casualties: Innocent Kasereka was beheaded by members of the March 23 Movement. Photo: Alexis Huguet/AFP
IInnocent Kaseleka sits in a dilapidated hospital in war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with a bandage wrapped around her neck from a knife wound.
He told how he was caught in the middle of an escalating conflict between M23 (March 23rd Movement) rebels and the Congolese National Army (FARDC) since late 2021.
The attack on Kaseleka occurred in early May on a coffee plantation in the agricultural town of Kibilizi, North Kivu province. The castle was seized two months ago by the Rwandan army, which has been fighting alongside M23 and rebel groups.
“When M23 arrived in Kibilizi, they held a meeting and assured us that we were safe,” Kaseleka said.
Instead, he said, he was attacked by people “wearing M23 uniforms.” Bloodied and traumatized, he managed to climb the hill to safety in the government area of the town.
The Congolese army launched an offensive to retake Kibilizi from M23 in late April, supported by a motley crew of armed groups known as Wazalendo (Swahili for patriot).
A Congolese army colonel said fighting intensified in the town center and FARDC mortar shells destroyed houses and killed people living there.
However, the military failed to retake Kibilizi, and once the Congolese army withdrew, the population was left at the mercy of the M23, which began “attacking the population,” Kaseleka said.
The men who beheaded Kasereka and slashed the throat of his deceased friend Germain accused them of belonging to a paramilitary group that had ambushed them.
“They suspected us to be traitors and to have facilitated the invasion of Wazalendo town,” Kaseleka said.
In 2022, more than 100 people were killed for the same reason in Kisichhe, a town about 10 kilometers from Kibilizi. The United Nations later discovered that M23 was responsible for the massacre.
Kasereka has been recovering for about 10 days in a hospital in Kanyabayonga town, about 10 kilometers from the attack site. In the bed next to him, an 18-year-old fighter also named Jermaine lies on dirty sheets, his injured arm bandaged.
Germain has been fighting for four years with the Front for Peace and Patriots/People's Army (FPP/AP), one of the region's largest armed groups, which is part of Wazalendo. However, he was wounded by rocket fragments during a failed operation by the Congolese army and its allies to regain control of Kibilizi.
For almost two years, FARDC and Wazalendo have not won a single victory as M23 continues to advance in North Kivu province.
FPP/AP Spokesman Augustine Darwin said he had no confidence in the FARDC because it did not honor agreements with armed groups. He accused the Congolese army of engaging in “withdrawal after retreat” and “fleeing in the face of the enemy.”
His soldiers “have neither boots nor uniforms.” [and] Do not accept rations,” Darwin said from the group's headquarters in Mbabinwa, a small village about 10 kilometers from Kanyabayonga.
“They are depressed,” he added.
If embezzlement within the military decreases, “FARDC won't even need Wazarend,” he said.
Kanyabayonga has become a haven for tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled fighting and abuses by M23 rebels.
But the town's mayor, Chrysostome Kaseleka, is concerned that the area could be bombed. “We are living in fear,” he said.
The mayor said three mortar shells had fallen around Kanyabayonga in recent weeks, as his secretary showed him the remains of a projectile missile found in a field.
Civil society leaders in Kibilizi, Kanyabayonga and Kisiche also said that some FARDC officials had “facilitated passage to the rebels.”
FARDC officials were called to the capital Kinshasa in mid-March as part of the investigation, but some have already returned to Kanyabayonga.
“Impunity is what keeps things from working in our republic,” Kasereka said.
Congolese forces and Wazarendo fighters have launched a new offensive in Kibilizi.
“Every day, trucks full of soldiers arrive here,” said one of the town's civil society leaders.
“If they [the FARDC soldiers] “Another 'strategic retreat' will lead to a fight between Wazalendo and the FARDC…and we ourselves will take up arms,” he warned. —AFP
