mass graves - The African Mirror

Jun

2023

Mass graves found in east Congo village after M23 rebel retreat, HRW says

DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo's M23 rebels allegedly executed scores of villagers and militia members between November and April and buried their bodies in mass graves, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, accusing Rwanda of backing the group. The Tutsi-led M23 staged a major offensive in Congo's restive east last year, triggering an armed response from local and regional forces. Hundreds of thousands have fled fighting near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda. Last year, the United Nations accused the group of executing at least 131 people in November in retaliation for clashes between M23 and rival armed groups. The U.N.'s human rights office…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenya cult deaths: Church leader remains in jail

NEWS

A Kenyan cult leader accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves to death will be detained by police until a hearing on Friday, a court ruled as investigators searched for more bodies in a forest where 101 corpses have already been unearthed. Kenyan authorities say the dead were members of the Good News International Church led by Paul Mackenzie, 50, who had predicted the world would end on April 15 and ordered his followers to kill themselves to be the first to go to heaven. The death toll stands at a total of 109 so far, with 101, mostly children, found…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenya hunger cult deaths reach 89, minister prays survivors will ‘tell the story’

NEWS

GEORGE OBULUTSA THE death toll among followers of a Kenyan cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves has risen to 89, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said, calling for the group's leader to spend the rest of his life in prison. The toll has steadily risen in recent days as authorities have carried out exhumations of mass graves found in an 800-acre area of the Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya where the self-proclaimed Good News International Church was based. Most of the dead were recovered from shallow graves, while a small number were found alive and…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Mass graves found in the DRC

NEWS

MASS graves containing 49 bodies have been discovered in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said, attributing the killings to an ethnic militia group. Forty-two bodies, including 12 women and six children, were found buried in the village of Nyamamba, in Ituri province. The bodies of seven men were found in the village of Mbogi, about 30 km (19 miles) east of the provincial capital Bunia, the U.N. peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, said on Twitter. "MONUSCO strongly condemns these barbaric and cowardly killings attributed to CODECO," it said, adding that peacekeepers had launched a patrol in the area…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

UN rights mission finds ‘probable’ mass graves in Libya

NEWS

EMMA FARGE and ANGUS MCDOWALL A U.N.-appointed mission to Libya said there are "probable mass graves" yet to be investigated, possibly as many as 100, in a town where hundreds of bodies have already been found, and it urged Tripoli to keep searching. The report to be submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council this week details how a militia run by seven brothers executed and imprisoned hundreds of people between 2016-2020, sometimes keeping them in tiny oven-like structures called "the boxes" which were set alight during interrogations. The evidence of kidnappings, murder and torture in Tarhouna, uncovered by the…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

‘War crime’ killings near Kyiv raise international outcry, as frontline shifts

WORLD

MARKO DJURICA and ABDELAZIZ BOUMZAR INTERNATIONAL outrage spread over civilian killings in northern Ukraine, where a mass grave and tied bodies of people shot at close range were found in a town taken back from Russian forces, as Moscow shifted the focus of the fighting elsewhere. The deaths in Bucha, outside Kyiv, are likely to galvanise the United States and Europe into additional sanctions against Moscow, possibly including some restrictions on the billions of dollars in energy that Europe still imports from Russia. The discoveries overshadowed peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that were due to resume on Monday against…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Rwanda’s story serves as an uplifting symbol of renewal, even beyond our borders’

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

PAUL KAGAME THIS may be the 27th time we have marked commemoration, but the occasion is never ordinary. There are always reminders of what is at stake. New mass graves are regularly discovered. Many perpetrators still roam free. But we cannot allow the weight of our history to crush us. This is also the second Kwibuka during the Covid-19 pandemic. The physical distance only adds to the emotional burden on survivors, whose quiet strength has nourished our nation’s revival. We thank you and we honour the sacrifices you have made for the sake of a better future for us all.…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Libyan investigators find more mass graves in recaptured city

NEWS

LIBYA authorities have dug 12 bodies from four more unmarked graves in the city of Tarhouna, adding to the scores of corpses already discovered since the area was recaptured in June by the Government of National Accord (GNA). Tarhouna had for years been controlled by a militia known as the Kaniyat, run by the local Kani family, which fought alongside Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA). The GNA has issued arrest warrants for Kaniyat leaders who are now believed to be in eastern Libya. When Turkish support helped the internationally recognised GNA take back Tarhouna in a sudden advance…