They made me bury bodies seven times in a big grave.
In the hills of eastern Congo, a system of coercion and suffering has taken shape inside training camps where thousands of civilians, soldiers, and children were absorbed by force into an armed machinery serving both M23 and Rwandan military interests. Human Rights Watch, drawing on survivor testimony, satellite imagery, and geolocation evidence, has documented what it characterizes as systematic war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed between mid-2024 and the end of 2025. The findings place Rwanda within the legal definition of a belligerent occupier, carrying with it the weight of command responsibility for abuses that may have claimed hundreds of lives. What hangs in the balance now is whether the international community will treat accountability as an obligation or, once again, as an aspiration deferred.
- Thousands of Congolese — soldiers, civilians, police officers, and children as young as twelve — were seized from hospitals, schools, and roadsides and forced into M23 training camps through ambushes, false summons, and armed checkpoints.
- Inside Rumangabo and Tshanzu, detainees endured beatings, starvation, denial of water and medicine, and summary executions, with former prisoners reporting that hundreds may have died from the conditions alone throughout 2025.
- Children were not merely imprisoned but put to work as forced laborers and guards, some assigned to beat fellow detainees, deepening the legal gravity of the abuses toward crimes against humanity.
- Rwanda's government and M23 leadership have denied the findings and refused meaningful investigation, while those who surrendered to Congolese forces now face their own detention without clear legal basis in Kinshasa's Makala prison.
- Human Rights Watch is pressing the ICC, the UN, the African Union, the EU, and the United States to open formal investigations, review military assistance to Rwanda, and impose targeted sanctions on commanders identified as responsible.
Between mid-2024 and the end of 2025, Rwandan military forces and the M23 armed group conducted a sweeping campaign of forced recruitment across North Kivu in eastern Congo, pulling people from hospitals, schools, churches, and roadsides — sometimes under false pretenses, sometimes at gunpoint — and transporting them to training camps in Rumangabo and Tshanzu. The scale encompassed captured soldiers, civilians with no military background, police officers, local militia members, and children as young as twelve.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 102 survivors and cross-referenced their accounts with satellite imagery, geolocated videos, and photographs. What emerged was a portrait of deliberate terror: beatings for minor infractions, starvation rations, executions for escape attempts, and the denial of water so absolute that detainees were punished for drinking from puddles. One former student described burying bodies in a mass grave seven times. Children were assigned not only as prisoners but as guards tasked with beating others. The full death toll is unknown — mass graves remain unexcavated — but survivors consistently described hundreds of deaths throughout the year.
Rwandan military personnel were identifiable throughout the camps as trainers and commanders, distinguished by their uniforms, equipment, and unfamiliarity with French and Kiswahili. This presence, confirmed by military, intelligence, and UN sources, places Rwanda within the international legal threshold for belligerent occupation — meaning Rwandan officials may bear criminal liability for M23's conduct. The documented abuses constitute war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity, yet both Rwanda and M23 leadership have denied the allegations and declined to investigate.
The problem does not end at the camp gates. In May 2026, Human Rights Watch found scores of people who had surrendered to Congolese forces now held without clear legal basis in Kinshasa's Makala prison, including fourteen children subjected to military intelligence interrogations lasting days to weeks. Neither Congo's justice system nor Rwanda's government has moved toward prosecution.
The report calls on the International Criminal Court to fold these abuses into its existing inquiry into eastern Congo, and urges Rwanda's international partners — the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, and the United States — to reconsider military assistance and pursue targeted sanctions against the commanders responsible. Decades of impunity in eastern Congo have made cycles of atrocity self-sustaining; the report's implicit argument is that this moment, documented and named, offers a rare chance to interrupt that cycle.
In the training camps of Rumangabo and Tshanzu, scattered across the hills of North Kivu in eastern Congo, thousands of people have disappeared into a system of forced recruitment and abuse that Human Rights Watch now documents as systematic war crimes. Between mid-2024 and the end of 2025, Rwandan military forces working alongside the M23 armed group swept through towns and villages, pulling people from hospitals, schools, and churches—sometimes with false promises, sometimes at gunpoint—and loading them onto trucks bound for these camps.
The scale is staggering. Soldiers captured in battle, civilians with no military experience, police officers, members of local militias, and children as young as twelve were all funneled into the same detention centers. M23 fighters set up ambushes on roads and manned checkpoints where they could intercept anyone. They summoned residents under pretenses of meetings or work, then transported them away. Once inside the camps, the machinery of control began: beatings for minor infractions, starvation rations, denial of water and medicine, and executions for those who tried to escape or even bent down to drink from puddles.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 102 people who had lived through these camps—former detainees who escaped, soldiers who were later deployed with M23, and those who eventually surrendered to Congolese forces. The researchers also examined satellite imagery, geolocated videos, and photographs to piece together what happened. One former detainee, a student before his capture, described being forced to bury bodies seven times in a single mass grave. Another, a civilian held for five months, recalled the violence of simply trying to drink water without permission. The camps held children not just as prisoners but as forced laborers and guards, some assigned to beat other detainees.
The death toll remains unknown because the mass graves have not been fully excavated, but former prisoners consistently reported that hundreds—possibly more—died throughout 2025 from the conditions, the beatings, and the executions. The camps functioned as a system of terror designed to break people and remake them as soldiers for M23. Rwandan military personnel were visibly present as trainers and commanders, identifiable by their uniforms, equipment, and accents, and their inability to speak French or Kiswahili, languages not widely used in Rwanda. Military and intelligence sources, as well as UN officials, confirmed this Rwandan involvement.
The legal implications are severe. Rwanda's military presence and control over M23 operations in eastern Congo meet the international legal threshold for belligerent occupation. This means Rwandan officials could face criminal liability for the actions of M23 forces at the camps. The abuses documented—forced recruitment, torture, summary execution, forced labor, and the use of child soldiers—constitute war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity. Yet Rwanda's government and M23leadership have denied the allegations and refused to investigate them seriously.
The problem extends beyond the camps themselves. In May 2026, Human Rights Watch visited Makala prison in Kinshasa, Congo's capital, where scores of people forcibly recruited by M23 and later surrendered to Congolese forces are now detained. Thirty-four of them, including fourteen children, reported being held and interrogated by Congolese military intelligence for days to weeks after their surrender. They remain imprisoned without clear legal justification. Congo's justice system has not moved to prosecute those responsible for the abuses in the camps, nor has Rwanda taken action despite years of allegations.
The report calls on the International Criminal Court to investigate the forced recruitment campaigns and detention abuses as part of its ongoing inquiry into eastern Congo. It urges Rwanda's international partners—the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, and the United States—to review their military assistance to Rwanda and consider targeted sanctions against M23 and Rwandan commanders responsible for the abuses. The cycle of impunity in eastern Congo has lasted decades. Without intervention, it will continue.
Notable Quotes
If we were caught trying to drink from puddles on the ground, the guards beat us violently.— A civilian detainee held for five months at one of the camps
The forced recruitment of civilians, including children, is part of a decades-long cycle of abuse in eastern Congo. Concerned governments need to show that the atrocities being committed by Rwanda and the M23 in their training camps require urgent action.— Clémentine de Montjoye, senior Great Lakes researcher at Human Rights Watch
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Rwanda's military presence in these camps matter legally? Couldn't M23 just be acting on its own?
Because Rwanda's soldiers were there—training, commanding, making decisions. When one state's military exercises that kind of control over territory and operations, international law treats it as occupation. That changes who's responsible. Rwanda can't hide behind M23 and claim plausible deniability.
The report mentions children as young as twelve. What were they actually doing in these camps?
Some were forced to work—digging, carrying, maintaining the camps. Others were put on guard duty. And some were made to beat other detainees. It's a way of breaking them, making them complicit, turning them into soldiers who've already crossed a line.
You mention hundreds of deaths, but you say the exact number is unknown. Why not excavate the graves and count?
Because the camps are still in M23-controlled territory. No one has access to dig. The graves are there, but they're not being opened. That's partly why the ICC investigation matters—it would have the authority and resources to do that work.
What happens to the people who surrendered and are now in Makala prison in Kinshasa?
They're stuck. They were forced into the camps, then they got out, and now Congo's military is holding them without clear charges. They're victims of forced recruitment being treated like criminals. No one's offered them a way out.
If Rwanda denies all this, what's the evidence that actually proves Rwandan soldiers were there?
Former detainees identified them by their uniforms, their equipment, their accents, and the fact that they couldn't speak French or Kiswahili. Military and UN sources confirmed it independently. It's not one person's word—it's consistent testimony backed up by official sources.