PRESS RELEASE FROM THE PAMOJA KWA AMANI COALITION ON ATROATS COMMITTED BY THE AFC-M23 IN IRHAMBI KATANA, KANIOLA, AND BUKAVU, SOUTH KIVU.

Bukavu, November 24, 2025

The Pamoja kwa Amani Coalition (C-PKA) is deeply concerned and saddened by the massacres and summary executions of unarmed civilians that have intensified in recent days in several areas of South Kivu Province, allegedly perpetrated by the Congo River Alliance – March 23 Movement (AFC-M23).

Indeed, faced with the increasingly frequent attacks and ambushes by « Wazalendo » militiamen against AFC-M23 convoys and other positions, the latter are committing serious atrocities against civilians whom they wrongly associate with Wazalendo fighters. For them, any young person from the villages or hills where the attacks originate is automatically considered a Wazalendo and deserves only a bullet to the head.

This was notably the case with the carnage perpetrated on the night of November 23-24, 2025, in the Irhambi Katana Grouping, where no fewer than twelve (12) people, men between the ages of 20 and 40, were apprehended and subsequently summarily executed by AFC-M23 elements under the pretext of collaboration and/or membership in the Wazalendo.

Disregarding international humanitarian law, which protects civilians and obligates warring parties not to attack health facilities, AFC-M23 soldiers stormed the Chahoboka health center around 10:00 PM last night and captured three men—a patient and two caregivers—and executed them. Their bullet-riddled bodies were discovered this morning not far from the aforementioned health center.

In addition to these individuals, other bodies were recovered from various locations, including three approximately 50 meters from the small market known as Chebirema, two at the Bidabanga field, one near the Airtel antenna in Chahoboka, and two more at the small market in Cibimbi. And the death toll will certainly rise because these AFC-M23 elements patrolling these villages do not hesitate to shoot any man they encounter in the head; for them, all young men in these areas are « wazalendo » and should be massacred.

Even earlier, on November 21, other cases of summary massacres of civilians were recorded in Kaniola, where two young men from the same family were brutally shot by AFC-M23 elements and buried in a mass grave.

In the city of Bukavu, motorcyclists are also being coldly gunned down at point-blank range without the slightest compassion, as was the case this Monday, November 24, at the Nguba market, where a motorcyclist was shot twice by an AFC-M23 policewoman. This brings the number of motorcyclists killed in the city of Bukavu to four (4) in the space of a week.

In the face of these killings and massacres of civilians, the Pamoja kwa Amani Coalition vehemently condemns them and raises the alarm, calling on the political and military authorities of the AFC-M23 to swiftly put an end to these acts, which constitute serious war crimes. These crimes are imprescriptible and will expose them to prosecution sooner or later before national and/or international bodies.

Pamoja kwa Amani calls on the belligerents to strictly respect the various commitments made within the framework of the Doha and Washington peace processes, in particular by observing the ceasefire and protecting civilians from any act contrary to International Humanitarian Law.

« Life remains sacred even in times of war! Peace is stronger than war. » THE END.

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Note: Pamoja kwa Amani will return to this topic with force and detail in issue 09 of its Citizen Barometer of Peace, Security and Human Rights for this month of November, which will be released in a few days.