BUKAVU (Reuters) – Twelve victims of a deadly blast at a rally last week in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were laid to rest on Tuesday in a ceremony organized by newly appointed rebel authorities.
The incident took place last Thursday in the city of Bukavu that has been under the control of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels since February. Congo’s government and the insurgents traded blame for the attack.
Witnesses said a grenade intended to hit a convoy of rebel leaders in the city’s central square missed its mark.
The explosion resulted in the deaths of 17 people, the new provincial vice governor, Dunia Masumbuko Bwenge, told reporters. Eleven people died instantly and the others succumbed to their injuries in hospital, he said.
At the funeral ceremony, residents sang and a priest sprinkled holy water on coffins. Women who lost husbands and sons in the attack grieved as the coffins were loaded in a truck and transported to a cemetery.
Claude Balolebwami Nyarubasa said grenade explosions killed his older brother Bruno who was passing through the square where the meeting was held.
“At the moment, we are very worried, very worried, we ask our government to guarantee us peace… We plead with the government to help us, let these killings stop,” Nyarubasa told Reuters.
Congo’s army said on Friday that Rwandan troops and rebels had fired rockets and grenades into a crowd gathered for a speech by one of rebel leaders. Rwanda denies supporting M23.
The leader of a rebel alliance, Corneille Nangaa, blamed President Felix Tshisekedi for the attack.
The latest M23 rebel advance is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in eastern Congo, rooted in the spillover of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide into Congo and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources and national identity.
(Reporting by Congo newsroom; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
