Blasts, gunfire kill several at M23 rally in eastern DR Congo

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Rebel commander Corneille Nangaa says he is unharmed as video shows dead, wounded people in Bakavu.

Explosions have rocked a major city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a rally for the M23 rebel group and their supporters that one of the armed group’s top commanders attended.

The first explosion in Bukavu on Thursday 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, but there was no immediate information on the number of casualties.

The meeting was the first to be attended by M23 commander Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance, since his forces seized control of 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 and he blamed DRC President Felix Tshisekedi without providing evidence. There was no immediate comment from the government.

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.