Horror and chaos as refugees flee battles

CONGOLESE refugees described neighbours being massacred and losing children in the chaos as they fled into Rwanda to escape a surge in fighting despite a peace deal brokered by US President Donald Trump.

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REFUGEES from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, newly arrived after renewed fighting broke out, line up with buckets at a food distribution point at Nyarushishi Transit Camp in Rusizi district. | AFP

(AFP)

"I have 10 kids, but I'm here with only three. I don't know what happened to the other seven, or their father," Akilimali Mirindi, 40, said in the Nyarushishi refugee camp in Rwanda's Rusizi district.

Around 1 000 Congolese have ended up in this camp after renewed fighting broke out in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this month.

The M23 armed group, backed by Rwanda, has seized vast swathes of eastern DRC over the past year and is once again on the march, taking another key city, Uvira, in recent days.

Thousands have fled as civilians are again caught in the crossfire between the M23, Congolese forces and their allies.