AFRICA/DR CONGO – Despite ongoing peace talks, massacres of civilians continue

Kinshasa – On the night between November 23 and 24, 2025, at least twelve men between the ages of 20 and 40 were arrested in Irhambi Katana, South Kivu Province , and subsequently executed by members of the AFC-M23 under the pretext of collaborating with and/or belonging to the “Wazalendo” militia.
This is stated in a note sent to Agenzia Fides by local sources, in which they express “deep concern and sadness over the massacres and arbitrary executions of unarmed civilians that have increased in recent days in various areas of South Kivu Province and have been perpetrated by the AFC/M23.” The AFC/M23 alliance, supported by the Rwandan army, captured a large portion of the North and South Kivu provinces earlier this year. Opposing the rebels are the local Wazalendo militias, whose actions are having a negative impact on the civilian population. “Given the increasing frequency of attacks and ambushes by the Wazalendo militias against AFC/M23 convoys and other positions, they are committing serious atrocities against civilians, who are falsely associated with the Wazalendo fighters,” the statement reads. “For them, every young man from the villages or hills from which the attacks originate is automatically considered a member of the Wazalendo and deserves only a bullet in the head.”
There are also reports of attacks on health centers, such as the one in Chahoboka, where AFC/M23 soldiers entered around 10 p.m. on November 23 and captured and executed three men—a patient and two health workers. Their bodies were found this morning near the health facility. “In Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, motorcyclists are also being shot dead in cold blood and without the slightest compassion at close range, as happened on November 24 at the Nguba market, where a motorcyclist was hit twice by a policewoman from the AFC/M23. This brings the number of motorcyclists killed in Bukavu to four in one week,” the statement reads. “The defense of the people of South Kivu has largely been left to the ‘Wazalendo’ militias, who are themselves committing acts of violence,” a missionary with extensive knowledge of the region told Fides. “No one knows what will become of them. International diplomacy might have been able to prevent this mutual massacre of the population if it had imposed serious sanctions on Rwanda,” he concludes.
In October 2025, the Kivu Security Tracker documented a total of 145 armed clashes. The M23/AFC alliance was involved in 89 of them. Despite the peace processes initiated to peacefully resolve this crisis, fighting on the ground has intensified, and violence by other groups continues.

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