Human Rights Watch has just published a damning report on the war in eastern DRC.
The NGO accuses the Rwandan army and the M23 rebels of having conducted a vast campaign of forced recruitment and arbitrary detention in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between mid-2024 and December 2025. Among the victims were soldiers, Wazalendo fighters, civilians, and children as young as 12.
The 87-page document, titled "Death Was Everywhere ," details large-scale roundups in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. Murders, torture, corporal punishment, forced labor, and the recruitment of child soldiers are meticulously documented in the Rumangabo and Tshanzu training camps. HRW believes these atrocities could be classified as crimes against humanity. Dozens of deceased detainees were reportedly buried in mass graves.
The report also raises the issue of the fate of former M23 captives held in Makala prison in Kinshasa, where several of them are reportedly incarcerated without a specific reason.
