Innocent Kasereka sits in a rundown hospital in the war-torn east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), his neck bandaged where he was brutally slashed with a knife.
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He recounted how he became caught in the middle of the conflict raging between rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23) and Congolese armed forces (FARDC) since late 2021. The attack took place at a coffee plantation in the agricultural town of Kibirizi at the start of May.
It had been seized two months earlier by the M23 and the Rwandan Army, which has been fighting alongside the rebel group. “When the M23 arrived in Kibirizi they held a meeting and assured us that we were safe,” Kasereka said. Instead, he said he was attacked by people “in M23 uniform”. The Congolese Army backed by a rag-tag collection of armed groups known as Wazalendo — Swahili for Patriots — launched an offensive to retake Kibirizi from the M23 at the end of April.
But the Army failed to retake Kibirizi, leaving its inhabitants at the mercy of the M23 who began to “attack the population” when the Congolese Army left, Kasereka said.
Augustin Darwin, spokesperson for Front of Patriots for Peace/People’s Army, one of the largest armed groups in the area that is part of the Wazalendo, said he had no confidence in the FARDC. He accused the Congolese Army of “withdrawal after withdrawal” and “fleeing before the enemy”.