In a statement released on the social media platform X, the insurgents pointed out that on Friday and Saturday, the DRC Armed Forces and their allies launched a premeditated and systematic extermination campaign focused on Tutsi populations, with bombs dropped with the direct participation of the Burundian Army.

Sukhoi-25 fighter jets, combat helicopters, and military drones, launched from Burundian territory, bombed the densely populated Banyamulenge communes of Mikenke and Rwesankuku, the document stated, categorizing these attacks as a flagrant and repeated violation of international humanitarian law.

They added that this population has long been the target of a campaign of ethnic cleansing and emphasized that the extreme gravity of these acts could qualify as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The AFC/M23 also published a statement related to the UN Security Council meeting on Friday, which analyzed the deteriorating security situation in the DRC.

In this regard, the rebels clarified that their organization is a “liberation movement” acting “in the absence of state authority” and with the collaboration and sponsorship of the “Kinshasa regime” with “local and foreign armed groups, including remnants of Rwandan genocidal forces.”

They accused the government of sponsoring white ethnic cleansing against Congolese Tutsis and other tribes such as the Banyamulenge and the Hema; they also asserted the existence of poor governance, characterized by a prison state where the opposition and its leading figures are silenced, imprisoned, murdered, or forced into exile.

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