Mass graves found after withdrawal of rebels

Congolese authorities and a civil society group have said that mass graves were found in a part of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the M23 rebel group has recently withdrawn from, as fighting in the region escalates despite a US-mediated peace deal. According to Al Jazeera, the governor of South Kivu province, Jean-Jacques Purusi, told AP that authorities found two mass graves with at least 171 bodies in the Kiromoni and Kavimvira neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the eastern city of Uvira. The executive secretariat of the Local Network for the Protection of Civilians, a civil society group in the region, said it wanted to visit the mass graves but was prevented from doing so by the Congolese military. Information gathered so far indicates that the victims were killed by M23 rebels, said Yves Ramadhani, the group’s vice-president. The governor and the civil society group alleged that the rebels killed the individuals because they suspected them of belonging to the DRC army or a pro-government militia. Both the DRC military and M23 have been accused of extrajudicial killings and abuses by rights groups.