The DRC’s presidency, which says neighbouring Rwanda is backing the rebels, said in a post on X that “several” deaths occurred on Thursday and blamed “a foreign army illegally present on Congolese soil”.
Corneille Nangaa – who is the leader of the Congo River Alliance, which includes M23, and who had himself been present at the rally – said grenades were used in the explosions and were the same type used by Burundi’s army in the DRC. His claims could not be verified.
The first explosion caused panic, sending attendees fleeing from the area before a second explosion rang out, according to the AFP news agency. Residents said the explosions were accompanied by gunfire.
People ran through the streets, some bleeding and carrying limp bodies, video showed. Residents said they saw dead people.
The meeting was the first to be attended by Nangaa since his forces seized control of Bukavu, the region’s second largest city, nearly two weeks ago.
Nangaa told the Reuters news agency by phone that neither he nor other senior rebel commanders were wounded in the attack.
Bukavu is one of two key cities in the turbulent region seized in recent weeks by antigovernment M23 fighters, who United Nations experts said are backed by Rwanda.
The armed group has been trying to demonstrate that it can restore order in the territory it has captured from the DRC’s army and has reopened ports and schools.
M23 fighters have swept through the eastern DRC, seizing key cities and killing about 7,000 people. There have also been reports of sexual abuse of children and recruitment of minors as soldiers.
The rebel advance has stirred fears of a regional war that could draw in the DRC’s neighbours, including Rwanda.
The advance has been described as the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in the eastern DRC, which is rooted in the spillover of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide into the DRC and the struggle for control of the DRC’s vast mineral resources.
Rwanda has said it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it said is fighting with the Congolese military.
