— ‘Plundered from top to bottom’ —
The Red Cross said Wednesday its workers had picked up and buried 62 bodies, including civilians, from the streets of Goma in the days after its capture.
The organisation reported civilians and combatants were criss-crossing the region in search of refuge and medical treatment, running short of food and unable to reach their fields.
DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende charged that the rebels had plundered buildings in Goma “from top to bottom”.
However life in Goma appeared more normal Wednesday.
Shops were open, taxis were running and while there were a few rebels posted at junctions, their presence on the streets had been scaled down considerably.
M23 military commander Sultani Makenga said on Wednesday that the rebels were ready to pull back 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside Goma as pledged.
“Tomorrow morning, (the M23) will begin to move towards Sake, then Goma, to continue towards our original positions,” said Makenga, who was personally hit with UN and US sanctions this month over allegations of atrocities including killings, rapes and abductions.
A Western military source has estimated the number of rebels in the North Kivu region at 1,500.
The government has ruled out any peace talks until the M23 quit Goma.
The M23 was founded by former fighters in an ethnic-Tutsi rebel group whose members were integrated into the regular army under a 1999 peace deal which they claim was never fully implemented.
They seized Goma last week in a rapid advance that the army proved unable to stop, despite backing from UN peacekeepers’ attack helicopters.
The complex web of rebel groups and militias battling for eastern DR Congo’s mineral wealth has made the region chronically unstable.
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