As Rwanda-backed rebels closed in on eastern Congo's largest city, retreating army soldiers barged into Suzanne Amisi Wilonja's home near the airport to loot, firing indiscriminately and shooting her 10-year-old son Sylvain in the head.

Clashes in the streets prevented the family from reaching doctors until the following morning, and by then Sylvain was long dead, one of a growing number of child victims of lethal violence spreading through the mineral-rich region.

"We were afraid to go out to take him to the hospital because the soldiers were crowded near our door," a tearful Wilonja told Reuters as she described watching her son die.

An army spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the incident in late January in Goma. Reuters could not independently confirm the details.

The United Nations has warned of surging child recruitment, abductions, killings and sexual violence as the rebels, known as M23, press on after seizing more territory in eastern Congo than ever before.

A military prosecutor has accused fleeing soldiers of crimes including rape and murder.

Last week the U.N. human rights office said M23 fighters summarily executed three children in Bukavu, the region's second-largest city which fell earlier this month. An M23 spokesperson has denied the allegation.

The victims in Bukavu were holding weapons left behind by fleeing soldiers, Patrice Vahard, head of the rights office in Kinshasa, told Reuters.

He added that he could not say exactly how many children had been killed or wounded in similar circumstances, citing challenges to investigating as fighting persists.

"There is a climate of terror in Bukavu that makes it difficult for parents to testify," he said, but "one child is enough - we don't need numbers".

RAPES INCREASING

The M23 offensive is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in east Congo, rooted in the spillover of Rwanda's 1994 genocide into Congo and the struggle for control of Congo's vast mineral resources.

Rwanda rejects allegations that it supports M23, the latest in a long line of ethnic Tutsi-led rebel movements to emerge in Congo's east, with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting alongside the Congolese military.

The recent hostilities have brought an increase in the sexual violence that has long plagued the region.

In the week after Goma fell, 42 healthcare facilities in and around Goma recorded 572 rape cases, including 170 children, said Lianne Gutcher, chief of communications for the U.N. children's agency in Congo.

That is up from 95 cases of rape per week in 2024 in the same facilities, she said.

"Rapes were perpetrated by armed men. It is suspected that all parties to the conflict committed sexual violence," she said.

A medical worker in Goma who treats sexual violence survivors said there had been an increase in "serious" cases.

"There were women and girls who were raped to the point of destroying their bladders," the worker said, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

"We haven't seen anything like that in a long time."

Gang rapes of young girls have been reported in both Goma and Bukavu, though data were still being collected, Vahard said.

Congo has not commented on reports concerning its troops, and has also called on the U.N. to investigate violations it blames on M23 rebels and Rwanda. Rwanda has rejected any responsibility. M23 rebels have not responded to requests for comment.

'MOST VULNERABLE'

The U.N. refugee agency has also described children succumbing to exhaustion as their families try to escape to Burundi to stay ahead of the fighting.

"When they follow their parents, they are the most vulnerable. They cannot run like their parents," Vahard said.

Even as fighting continues in North and South Kivu provinces, M23 has vowed to restore order in Goma and Bukavu, re-opening ports and announcing plans to retrain police officers.

It comes too late for people such as 19-year-old Emile Bashali, whose baby sister was killed when a bomb hit the family home as Goma fell.

"The baby started to cry. I rushed into the room to get her" but she had suffered serious shrapnel wounds, he said.

Doctors at the hospital tried to operate, but "30 minutes later they came to tell us that our baby had died," Bashali said. "Our baby's name was Keyna. She was one year and four months old."

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As Rwanda-backed rebels seized Goma, the families of Congolese soldiers became a target

Wives of Congolese government soldiers who were sent to Rumangabo for mixing and integration into the M23 rebel forces, sit Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 in a Goma, eastern Congo school where they found shelter. 

The Rwanda-backed rebels who captured eastern Congo's major city of Goma have targeted relatives of fleeing Congolese soldiers, the families say, with the troops' wives chased from military barracks and left stranded in the city while some of their children are allegedly being forced to join the rebellion.

As the M23 rebels swept into Goma in late January, they moved into military camps in and around the city, which had hosted hundreds of military families, and quickly emptied them of their relatives, the women said.

M23 is the most potent of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in Congo’s mineral-rich east. In a major escalation of their yearslong fighting with government forces, the rebels captured Goma and Bukavu, the region’s biggest cities, in fighting that has forced thousands of soldiers to either flee or surrender while at least 2,000 people have been killed.

After being forced to leave military camps in Goma, many families of fleeing Congolese soldiers are sheltering in temporary settlements, including schools where their belongings lie around and where several families are cramped in some classrooms. At the shelters, they spoke to The Associated Press about their new life of hardship and uncertainty.

All that Francine Kayenga and her three children managed to save as they were chased out of the Mubambiro military base in Masisi territory were some clothes and a mat. Her husband died recently in the conflict.

“I cry every night,” said a distraught Kayenga, who is heavily pregnant. “If I didn’t have my children, I would have ended my life.”

Military families stuck in the middle of a rebellion

Unlike in 2012 when M23 first captured Goma and withdrew after days as international pressure grew, their rebellion this time is different in various ways.

The group has spoken of unseating the government of Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi. They are attempting to gain more ground despite calls for a ceasefire and they have been bolstered with around 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda.

M23 leaders have also promised to "cleanse" the cities of alleged bad governance and insecurity.

Albertine Malongi, whose husband is among Congolese soldiers killed in the conflict, said that her 19-year-old son fled Goma amid news that the rebels were forcefully conscripting people in their fight against government forces.

“They want all the older boys, especially the sons of soldiers, to join their army,” said Malongi, 33.

The AP couldn't independently verify news of the forced conscription. However, the U.N. human rights office has reported cases of “child and forced recruitment” as well as “summary execution of children” by the rebels in areas they control, particularly in Bukavu, the South Kivu provincial capital.

“We call on Rwanda and M23 to ensure that human rights and international humanitarian law are respected,” the U.N. rights office has said.

Nowhere to go

M23 has continued their fighting with Congolese forces in a push to expand to other parts of eastern Congo while asserting their control in Goma and Bukavu. They have spoken of quickly reopening schools, raising fears among the families about where next they would settle when studies resume in the classrooms hosting them.

“We don’t know where we’re going to live, where we’re going to go (because) our houses had been burned (and) we don’t know if our husbands are still alive,” said Mwamini Tusawe, 37, at Furaha Primary School.

At both that school and Rutoboko Secondary School, among the temporary settlements, children play around the school premises as their mothers are settling into a new life.

Several women were also seen selling what they could from their belongings to get money for their family's next meal.

Peace and safety also continue to elude them, with M23 rebels often appearing in search of the soldiers.

Lucie Mapasa, who lost her husband in the conflict, recalled the horror of the M23’s last visit to the shelter.

“They pointed a gun at me demanding to know where my husband was," Mapasa said. “I showed them my children and explained that their father was dead.”

Inside the classrooms are wall paintings and pictures of learning materials. But education seems to be their lowest priority as many are fast running out of food.

“We’ve sold everything just to eat,” said Louise Sabina, a 39-year-old mother of 10. “One day, there will be nothing left, and we will starve.”

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Congo's president says he'll create a unity government as violence spreads

Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi.

Congo's president says he is going to launch a unity government as violence spreads across the country's east and pressure mounts over his handling of the crisis.

In some of his first statements since Rwandan-backed rebels captured major cities in eastern Congo, President Felix Tshisekedi told a meeting of the Sacred Union of the Nation ruling coalition on Saturday not to be distracted by internal quarrels.

Former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and police officers who allegedly surrendered to M23 rebels arrive in Goma, Congo, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025.

Former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and police officers who allegedly surrendered to M23 rebels arrive in Goma, Congo, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025.

Former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and police officers who allegedly surrendered to M23 rebels arrive in Goma, Congo, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025.

“I lost the battle and not the war. I must reach out to everyone including the opposition. There will be a government of national unity," said Tshisekedi. He didn’t give more details on what that would entail or when it would happen.

M23 rebels — the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control and influence in eastern Congo — have swept through the region seizing key cities, killing some 3,000 people. In a lightning three-week offensive, the M23 took control of eastern Congo’s main city Goma and seized the second largest city, Bukavu.

The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away.

Rwanda has accused Congo of enlisting ethnic Hutu fighters responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

M23 says it’s fighting to protect Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform Congo from a failed state to a modern one. Analysts have called those pretexts for Rwanda’s involvement.

On Sunday, Congo’s communications minister, Patrick Muyaya said in a post on X that Rwanda and M23 had killed more than a dozen people in Goma. M23 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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DR Congo rebels seeking to exploit discrimination against minority Tutsis

The notorious M23 rebel group is wreaking havoc in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, seizing the region's two biggest cities in a deadly uprising which has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

Central to their campaign is the assertion that ethnic Tutsis living in DR Congo are being persecuted.

Digging into the status of Tutsis in DR Congo - and how it relates to the M23 uprising - is a complex and sensitive matter that goes to the heart of who is considered Congolese.

For starters, many global authorities argue that in their purported fight against discrimination, the rebels have committed unjustifiable atrocities. The UN and US, for instance, have sanctioned M23 leaders over allegations of war crimes, such as sexual violence and the killing of civilians.

Secondly, some regional analysts say that rather than seeking to defend Tutsis, the M23 - and Rwanda, which backs the rebel group - is primarily seeking to exploit the eastern DR Congo's vast mineral wealth.

It is also worth noting that there are thought to be hundreds of thousands of Tutsis in DR Congo - there is no official estimate - and many do not support the actions being carried out in their name.

That being said, experts and organisations like the UN have documented decades of discrimination against Congolese Tutsis and the Banyamulenge - a Tutsi sub-group concentrated in the South Kivu province.

This ranges from ethnic killings, to workplace discrimination, to hate speech on the part of politicians.

At the root of this discrimination is the association of Tutsis with neighbouring Rwanda, which has been led by Tutsis since 1994. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, many Congolese Tutsis played a key role in violent Rwandan-backed rebellions against the governments then running DR Congo.

The perception that Congolese Tutsis are "foreign" can have deadly consequences.

Bukuru Muhizi, a researcher and economist from South Kivu's Mwenga territory, told the BBC that people from various generations of his family had been killed because of their Banyamulenge and Tutsi identities.

He said that in the past six years, his great-uncle and great-uncle's son were killed by Congolese soldiers and local militia fighters. The Congolese armed forces have not responded to the BBC's request for comment on this allegation.

Mr Muhizi said his family has lived in present-day DR Congo for centuries and that he "wished the world knew" his community was experiencing what he called a "silent genocide".

Muragwa Cheez Bienvenue, a Banyamulenge activist, said he was once targeted by airport staff in the city of Bukavu.

"I was stopped - they told me I look like [Rwandan President] Kagame and they had me pay around $150 (£120) to save myself from being imprisoned," he told the BBC, adding that he supports the M23's cause.

Prior to colonisation, part of the territory that is now DR Congo was subject to the Rwandan monarchy, which is Tutsi. It had long been fighting expansionist wars, extending the kingdom to include more and more of East Africa.

Tutsis, Hutus and other ethnic groups lived in the Rwandan kingdom and had done so since at least the 19th Century. But when colonial powers drew up arbitrary borders in Africa, the kingdom was split between present-day DR Congo and Rwanda.

Subsequently, other Tutsis have migrated to DR Congo in waves. In the mid-20th Century, Belgian colonialists brought workers over from present-day Rwanda to staff their plantations, while others came on their own accord in search of a better life.

Meanwhile, Tutsi refugees began arriving in DR Congo, fleeing waves of ethnic violence in Rwanda and Burundi. Both countries have long been dominated by their Tutsi minorities, leading to tensions with the Hutu majority.

Many more are thought to have arrived in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were slaughtered. But when a Tutsi-led government seized power and ended the massacres, some returned, especially after some of those responsible for the genocide then fled into DR Congo.

As DR Congo's Tutsi and Banyamulenge communities grew, the Congolese authorities "alternately empowered and the undermined" them, Jason K Stearns, a DR Congo analyst, wrote in his book The War That Doesn't Say Its Name.

In the early 1970s, then-President Mobutu Sese Seko granted citizenship to anyone who had originated from Rwanda or Burundi, provided they were present on Congolese territory before 1960.

But in 1981, parliament rowed back on these rights and many Tutsis, Banyamulenge and people from other minority groups were "derived of their nationality and left stateless", a UN report noted.

In the 1990s, Tutsis and the Banyamulenge were subject to multiple massacres in DR Congo. For instance, a report by the UN says that the Congolese army aided armed groups in killing nearly 300 Banyamulenge civilians in the city of Baraka in 1996.

It also states that "many" Tutsis and Banyamulenge lost their jobs and suffered discrimination and threats.

Today, the constitution considers the Tutsi and Banyamulenge groups to be Congolese and some individuals from these communities occupy senior military and governance positions. In fact, Lt-Gen Pacifique Masunzu, the man leading the fight against the M23 as the commander of a key area in eastern DR Congo, is from the Banyamulenge community.

But there is still significant evidence of discrimination. In 2024, experts working for the UN said that in South Kivu, Banyamulenge are commonly seen as harmful to their neighbouring communities. This discourse incites "hatred, discrimination, hostility and violence", the experts said.

There have also been recent reports of Tutsi and Banyamulenge soldiers in the Congolese army being murdered. According to Human Rights Watch, a mob killed a Banyamulenge military officer in 2023 "in an apparent case of ethnic hatred".

Politicians - past and present - have also pushed discriminatory sentiment.

Anti-Tutsi feelings appear to rise during M23 rebellions, say DR Congo experts such as Mr Stearns.

He told the BBC he had seen "pretty terrifying" social media posts over the past few weeks - "a phenomenon of people in other parts of the country expressing doubts over a certain person, often an army officer or police officers... the way he looks, and claiming that certain people look like they're Rwandan".

Although some Congolese Tutsis may back the M23's current uprising, Mr Stearns says "many of them feel uncomfortable with the consequences this will have for them as a community, because once again, this means that they will be portrayed as treasonous rebels".

The Congolese government has gone some way in acknowledging the discrimination against Tutsis. For instance, earlier this year President Félix Tshisekedi said he had "had enough" of anti-Banyamulenge speech and alleged that such comments gave Rwanda the pretext to invade DR Congo.

However, the authorities have also played down allegations of widespread persecution. Government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya told the BBC: "We have 450 tribes and there is conflict between some of them in many parts of the country... The government position is against any kind of discrimination or hate speech against every community".

However, Mr Bienvenue on the other hand told the BBC he "strongly" believes his ethnic group are discriminated against, giving the example that his sister was once sacked after being told she "looked like a Rwandan spy".

This is despite his family living in the same area for centuries.

"The Banyamulenge have been here since Congo was Congo!" he said, exasperated.

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