Congo’s government has been accused of dramatically increasing the death toll from a massacre last week. According to the government 270 people had been killed in an attack that broke a fragile cease-fire agreement. Kinshasa last week accused the M23 rebels of killing hundreds of civilians in Kishishe, a village north of Goma.
M-23’s chairman challenged the figure and accused Congo’s government of creating a diversion from other atrocities in the region that he says have been committed by government soldiers and their allies. Meanwhile, a government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said that the government was opening an official inquiry into what happened in Kishishe, a village located about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the regional capital of Goma.
Last month at a summit in Angola, the leaders attending it had warned that if M23 did not respect the cease-fire and relinquish control of the towns it held, an East African regional force would make them do so.
