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M23 Fighters Accused of war Crimes in Eastern DRC
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Amnesty International reports killings,torture,and disappearances at M23 detention sites,urging Rwanda to cease support.
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo – The March 23 Movement (M23), backed by rwanda, stands accused of committing war crimes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Amnesty International detailed allegations of killings, torture, and forced disappearances of detainees at M23-run detention facilities in Goma and Bukavu.
According to Amnesty International,these actions violate international humanitarian law (IHL). The association interviewed 18 former civilian detainees between February and April 2025, all men, who were unlawfully held in M23 detention sites. Nine of these men reported being tortured by M23 fighters.
“M23’s public statements about bringing order to eastern DRC mask their horrific treatment of detainees. They brutally punish those who they believe oppose them and intimidate others, so no one dares to challenge them,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa. “Regional and international actors must pressure rwanda to cease it’s support for M23.”
Amnesty International is calling on M23 to promptly release arbitrarily detained civilians, disclose the whereabouts of those forcibly disappeared, treat detainees humanely, and grant access to lawyers and families.They also urge self-reliant monitoring bodies be granted access to all M23 detention sites.
Unlawful Killings and Harsh Conditions
Testimonies from eight detainees indicate that they witnessed fellow detainees die in detention, likely due to torture and the harsh conditions. hundreds were allegedly held in overcrowded, unsanitary cells with insufficient food, water, sanitation, or healthcare. Most were held incommunicado, without access to families or lawyers.
M23 detention sites in Goma reportedly include the provincial office of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), known as Nasty dog; a compound near the state-owned Congolese National Radio-Television (RTNC) on Mount Goma; the provincial assembly building; the 34th military region compound; and a make-shift detention center in Kanyaruchinya, outside Goma. In Bukavu, M23 has allegedly detained individuals in the main ANR office and a military camp in Bagira neighborhood. Amnesty international is aware of four other M23 detention sites in Goma.
two former detainees recounted witnessing M23 fighters kill two detainees with hammers and shoot another who died on the spot.
“I saw one man who was assassinated,” said a former detainee from Goma. “It was like he was a member of a band of bandits. [M23] were asking him where he kept the weapons and where is so and so. They shot him in the stomach and the right arm, like in the shoulder.”
Another detainee, at a different site, said he saw an M23 fighter kill two detainees. “The M23 [fighter] brought out a hammer and hit him in the ribs. He died on the spot. They took another person. He said he was a former member of the Republican Guard [an elite corps of soldiers that is responsible for the security of the president of the DRC].They hit him with the hammer, but he didn’t die immediately. In the morning, he was dead.”
Arbitrary Detentions and Lack of Due Process
Former detainees reported that M23 accused them of supporting the Congolese army or government through various means, including working with civil society, possessing weapons, or being affiliated with other armed groups, civil servants, or government officials.
Detainees claimed that M23 never provided evidence for these accusations, and at least 12 were not informed of the reasons for their detention.Some were detained to coerce them into working with M23 or to forcibly recruit them.
Most detainees reported having no dialog with their families and were effectively held incommunicado.
A family member of one detainee said: “They won’t let me talk to him. He’s in bad condition. The [M23 fighters] told me he was sick. they said: “We really whipped him, and he has wounds on his buttocks that are hurting him.”
Congolese citizens who traveled to Rwanda have also been subjected to arbitrary arrest. Rwandan border officials detained at least three Congolese men in February 2025 and handed two of them over to M23 fighters in Goma. The two men were released after almost two weeks at an M23 detention site.
Rwanda immigration officials also detained victoire Hategekimana Hakizimana, a 35-year-old NGO worker, on 12 february at the Ruzizi border crossing. He has been missing ever since.
Amnesty International stated they wrote to Rwanda’s Ministry of Justice and Attorney General on 7 May 2025 and to the president of M23 and its spokesperson on 9 May 2025, sharing their findings and requesting information. As of the time of publication, they had not received any response.
Torture Allegations
Amnesty International interviewed family members of detainees who were allegedly tortured by M23 while in detention and afterward died after their release, as well as a family member of a detainee who died in M23 custody.
All 18 former detainees said they were either tortured or witnessed M23 fighters torture others in detention.
At Nasty dog, the compound on mount Goma, the provincial assembly, and the 34th military region compound, former detainees said M23 fighters hit them with various objects, leaving them with signs of trauma.
At least nine detainees received medical treatment for their wounds following their release,with five hospitalized. In four other cases, Amnesty International reviewed photos of wounds consistent with detainees’ accounts of torture.
M23 fighters allegedly beat a man, who was later detained at the ANR office in Bukavu for three weeks, 100 times with wooden rods. Every morning, they whipped him and fellow detainees 10 times on their backsides when they were taken to the bathroom. “[The M23 fighters] said they were giving us our morning tea,” he said.
At the 34th military region compound in Goma, two detainees held there in early March said M23 beat detainees regularly. “I was beaten for five days,” said a former detainee. “Everyone was hit. They said they were going to kill me. They said: ‘We don’t need you. We will take your wife, and we will impregnate her.'”
In Kanyaruchinya, M23 detained a civilian in late March in a shipping container for five days. Before his death at a hospital in Goma,he described to a family member how M23 fighters had pinned his arm between their knees and then broke two bones in his arm.
At Nasty dog in the early morning, most detainees were brought out of their cells to the courtyard for flogging. They were beaten on their backside with a rubber electric cable or wooden rods. In early April, one detainee was beaten so badly that he could not stand up or sit down and could only lie on the ground. Fellow detainees had to pick him up to move him.
At the Mount Goma detention site, two detainees described how M23 fighters whipped them repeatedly on their buttocks and backs. One of them recounted his experience: “They take a chair and put it on your shoulders so that you don’t move.The soldiers whip you one after the other until they get tired. As soon as the one who is whipping gets tired, another one continues. They were three or four to beat me up.”
Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab verified a video which first appeared on social media on 18 March 2025, that showed men in uniforms beating a man with wooden rods at the unity stadium in Goma. M23 fighters controlled the city and were the only fighters who had access to the stadium.Amnesty International has documented how M23 used the stadium to torture abducted hospital patients and caregivers in late February and early March 2025.
