‘They killed all these younger individuals’

Freddy Mukuza’s remaining moments have been witnessed by a pal, who stood helpless, 50m (160 ft) away.

When he heard that Freddy had been shot – by M23 rebels he was informed – he and others rushed to the scene in Goma, in japanese Democratic Republic of Congo.

“After we arrived, we discovered Freddy nonetheless respiratory, and wished to take him away, however the M23 didn’t enable us,” says the pal, who we’re calling Justin.

“After we insisted, they fired bullets into the bottom as if to say: ‘Should you dare cross this perimeter, we’ll kill you as nicely.'”

In order that they needed to preserve their distance, as Freddy, 31, took his final breath. Solely then did the M23 enable them to strategy and take away his physique.

Shortly earlier than the killing, three pick-up vehicles stuffed with insurgent fighters had come to Freddy’s neighbourhood – Kasika.

It was round 15:00 on Saturday 22 February – virtually a month after the insurgent group had captured Goma in a speedy advance by means of the east of the nation.

Inside an hour or so, between 17 and 22 individuals had been killed, largely younger males, in line with our sources.

We now have gathered detailed accounts from residents, who can’t be recognized, for their very own safety.

We requested the M23 for a response to the allegation that they carried out a mass killing within the neighbourhood. They didn’t reply.

Officials in Kasika haven’t launched a loss of life toll, and there may be little or no prospect of an unbiased prison investigation into what residents are calling a bloodbath.

However locals insist the M23 is the one armed group which may function freely, and shoot to kill in broad daylight in Goma.

Since taking the town on the finish of January, the rebels have been in full management. Through the 18 days we spent on the bottom, their authority was absolute.

They’ve been accused previously of finishing up atrocities in different areas.

The closely armed rebels don’t act alone. They’re backed by neighbouring Rwanda, in line with the UN and the US. Rwanda denies this, although it now not denies having its personal troops in DR Congo, saying they’re there in self-defence.

It’s believed the M23 focused Kasika due to a former Congolese military base within the space.

The Katindo camp is now closed however among the troopers and their households stay within the district.

“Not all of the troopers have been capable of run away,” a neighborhood resident explains. “Some threw away their weapons and stayed in regards to the neighbourhood.”

However Freddy Mukuza was a civilian – a married father of two, struggling to get by. When arduous instances got here, he earned a residing by taking passengers on his motorcycle.

He was additionally an activist and songwriter who rapped in regards to the many issues in his homeland – a rustic wealthy in minerals whose individuals are amongst the poorest on the earth.

DR Congo is called a spot of corruption and instability – and of battle, stretching again 30 years. That’s if the nation and its struggling are remembered in any respect.

Sexual violence is endemic. The federal government is weak, at greatest.

There was loads for Freddy to rap about.

One in every of his songs is known as Au Secours (Assist in French), the lyrics stuffed with questions which have gone unanswered:

“Who will come to the help of these individuals? Who will come to the help of these raped ladies? Who will come to the help of these unemployed males?… The individuals are in peril, they do not have sufficient to eat. They [the authorities] purchase jeeps.”

On the day of his loss of life, Freddy was shifting to a brand new rented residence in Kasika. His brother-in-law was serving to him put a tarpaulin over the roof.

His sister-in-law was there too, getting the home prepared for Freddy’s household. After they heard the taking pictures, they have been inside and rushed to close the door, however they have been seen by the M23.

The rebels shot and killed Freddy’s two in-laws, in line with his pal Justin.

Since then, Justin has barely left residence, not even to earn cash. His household is surviving on greens and fruit. Tea is now a luxurious they can not afford.

He has stopped his kids going to high school, for worry they is perhaps taken from their school rooms by the M23 and forcibly recruited.

“We consider it’s extra vital that they keep alive,” he says.

His world has shrunk to his personal 4 partitions. There’s the fixed nagging worry that the rebels may return looking for younger males.

Simply the sight of one in all their pick-up vehicles on the street sends locals working, he says.

As of late it’s uncommon to discover a group of younger individuals speaking collectively, he tells us, and neighbours no lengthy share gripes in regards to the authorities as they did earlier than the insurgent takeover.

“Earlier than, there was dangerous governance, however we have been free,” he says. “There was embezzlement. There was mismanagement and we spoke out about that. We had the possibility to go to court docket. As we speak, there may be dangerous governance, however we dwell in terror and silence.”

Justin is talking to us as a result of he needs Freddy Mukuza to be remembered, and he needs the skin world to learn about life and loss of life beneath the M23.

Because the killings, Kasika has been shrouded in worry. Native journalists haven’t reported the story.

However a shaky video was posted on social media the subsequent day, 23 February, which seems to point out among the victims: 10 our bodies are seen – dumped in a tangled heap, in an unfinished constructing. It’s unclear if any of the useless have been troopers.

None are in uniform and there’s no signal of any weapons.

Within the background there are screams and shouts. One lady repeats time and again: “There are 10 of them,” as she strikes from physique to physique.

“They’re going to end us all,” she says. “They killed all these younger individuals. Is not that Junior? I feel it’s him. He’s a home builder.”

With out the video, information of the killings won’t have unfold past the neighbourhood.

However the footage had the facility to shock, even by the violent requirements of DR Congo.

Our sources say it’s genuine. One confirmed that the situation proven is in Kasika.

He visited the place after the our bodies have been moved. And he recognised a type of seen crying within the video, from across the neighbourhood.

Two of our sources say the youngest to die in Kasika was a boy aged 13-14. {The teenager} was inside his own residence, hiding behind his sisters.

“The M23 stated: ‘If this boy doesn’t include us, we’ll kill all of you,'” one man informed us.

The boy was then led away to his loss of life.

There was additionally a younger lady among the many victims. She had been promoting milk on the overcrowded streets.

Additionally killed – one other road vendor, in his twenties.

When the taking pictures began, he was sitting in his regular spot – on the pavement exterior his personal entrance door, promoting airtime for cellphones and home-made doughnuts.

He was overheard pleading with the rebels: “I am not a soldier.

“I simply promote airtime. Look, these are my issues – my airtime and my basket of doughnuts.”

Then he ran. One in every of his buddies takes up the story. We’re calling him John.

“I used to be in the home, and I heard gunfire,” John tells us. “Folks have been saying: ‘They’re taking younger individuals by pressure.’ I noticed individuals working, together with my pal, so I ran with them.

“After we reached the principle highway, there was taking pictures, and I heard gunfire behind me and someone fell.”

That was the doughnut vendor.

Regardless of his age, he was nonetheless in secondary faculty, in his remaining yr. He was a eager pupil who had a late begin as a result of his household couldn’t afford to coach him.

However John says: “Like all younger individuals, he had a dream.” In his case, it was to be an engineer.

John says the rebels didn’t care who they killed.

“There was no inquiry earlier than taking pictures,” he tells us. “They simply shot at everybody who was current, and at individuals who ran away, in two completely different instructions.”

When the M23 captured Goma, they introduced that they had no prisons. John says no additional clarification was wanted: “That meant whoever is presumed to be a authorities soldier, or a thief, or whoever makes a mistake, might be killed – instantly.”

Weeks on, few have dared to talk out. “No-one needs to be subsequent,” John says.

Bereaved households have held small hasty burials – with out the same old mourning at residence.

“The rebels did not need any funerals,” says one resident, who we’re calling Deborah. “They did not even need individuals to cry. We thought they have been coming to deliver peace, however as an alternative they got here to exterminate us. They took everybody they discovered on the road.”

As the lads have been being rounded up, she tried to step exterior. The rebels ordered her again in, at gunpoint.

Denis Baeni was on his means residence when the rebels arrived in Kasika. He dashed right into a small store to cover with just a few others, our sources say.

The first faculty instructor bought his ID card out of a pocket. He might have thought that will save him, by proving he was a civilian.

A neighbour – with data of the occasions – tells us what occurred. We’re calling her Rebecca.

“They heard a voice from exterior asking: ‘Are there any troopers?'” Rebecca says. “They stated no however the M23 took them out of the store.”

The lads have been informed to stroll a brief distance to a half-built home the place they have been “assembled for execution”.

“There was a lot gunfire,” she says. “It was so shut. There have been 21 individuals killed from our neighbourhood. Many have been simply passing by.”

Rebecca insists they have been all civilians. “Not one was a soldier,” she says.

Denis leaves behind two kids, who he was elevating alone.

Dying just isn’t the one hazard right here. Locals additionally face the danger of being recruited to battle – willingly or in any other case.

“These days males need to be residence by 17:30,” says Rebecca. “By 18:00 it is darkish, they usually can take you very simply.”

As households in Kasika are compelled to stifle their grief, the M23 are persevering with their sweep by means of japanese DR Congo.

After Goma, they took management the town of Bukavu in mid-February. They’ve threatened to go all the best way to the capital, Kinshasa, 1,600km (virtually 1,000 miles) away.

They declare they’re revolutionaries battling a failed state, and defending the rights of minority Tutsis.

Human rights teams paint a really completely different image.

They’ve accused the armed group of a listing of abuses since its basis in 2012 – together with systematic shelling of civilian areas, gang rape and “abstract executions”. The allegations have been documented in a collection of experiences.

In a latest BBC interview, I requested insurgent chief, Corneille Nangaa, for a response. He heads a coalition of political events and militias – referred to as the Congo River Alliance – which incorporates the M23.

“I did not see the experiences,” he stated. “I can’t reply for the report that I did not learn”. He additionally stated he was not apprehensive by the allegations.

Pushed on why he had not learn the experiences, he stated: “Give me one, I might be studying it.”

Nangaa, a former head of DR Congo’s electoral fee, alternates between fight fatigues and sensible fits.

He’s offered because the unarmed and unthreatening face of the rebels, however the Congolese authorities is providing a $5m (£4m) reward for data resulting in his arrest.

The rebels are usually not alone in having a historical past of brutality. The identical applies to the Congolese military, and to lots of the different armed teams in japanese DR Congo.

However the M23 are actually the one authority in elements of the east, and tens of millions of Congolese are at their mercy.

As we spoke to at least one resident of Kasika, his spouse referred to as him, asking him to return shortly to take their eight-year-old son from faculty.

Panic was spreading due to experiences the M23 have been taking kids from their school rooms.

He bought his baby residence safely however fears for the long run.

“We’re all traumatised. They stated they got here to liberate us,” he stated. “However now it is like they’re taking us hostage. “

Extra reporting from the BBC’s Wietske Burema.

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