RUSIZI
\nCongolese refugees described neighbors 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.
\n\u201cI have 10 kids, but I\u2019m here with only three. I don\u2019t know what happened to the other seven, or their father,\u201d Akilimali Mirindi, 40, told AFP in the Nyarushishi refugee camp in Rwanda\u2019s Rusizi district.
\nAround 1,000 Congolese have ended up in this camp after renewed fighting broke out in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this month.
\nThe 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.
\nThousands have fled as civilians are again caught in the crossfire between the M23, Congolese forces and their allies.
\nMirindi was living in Kamanyola near the Rwanda border when bombs started falling, destroying her house.
\n\u201cMany people died, young and old. I saw corpses as we fled, jumping over some of them. I made a decision to cross into Rwanda with the rest,\u201d she said.
\nTrump hosted the presidents of Rwanda and DRC, Paul Kagame and Felix Tshisekedi, on December 4 for an agreement aimed at ending the conflict, but the new offensive was already underway even as they were meeting.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s clear there is no understanding between Kagame and Tshisekedi… If they don\u2019t reach an understanding, war will go on,\u201d said Thomas Mutabazi, 67, in the refugee camp.
\n\u201cBombs were raining down on us from different directions, some from FARDC (Congolese army) and Burundian soldiers, some from M23 as they returned fire,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWe had to leave our families and our fields. We don\u2019t know anything, yet the brunt of war is faced by us and our families.\u201d
\n– \u2018Bombs following us\u2019 –
\nThe camp sits on a picturesque hill flanked by tea plantations, well-stocked by NGOs from the United Nations, World Food Programme and others.
\nThere are dormitories and a football pitch for the children, but the mostly women and children at the camp spoke of having their homes and fields stripped bare or destroyed by soldiers.
\nJeanette Bendereza, 37, had already fled her home in Kamanyola once this year \u2014 during the earlier M23 offensive, escaping to Burundi in February with her four children.
\n\u201cWe came back when they told us peace had returned. We found M23 in charge,\u201d she said.
\nThen the violence restarted.
\n\u201cWe were used to a few bullets, but within a short time bombs started falling from Burundian fighters. That\u2019s when we started running.\u201d
\nBurundi has sent troops to help the DRC and finds itself increasingly threatened as the M23 takes towns and villages along its border.
\n\u201cI ran with neighbors to Kamanyola… We could hear the bombs following us… I don\u2019t know where my husband is now,\u201d Bendereza said, adding she had lost her phone in the chaos.
\nOlinabangi Kayibanda, 56, had tried to hold out in Kamanyola as the fighting began.
\n\u201cBut when we started seeing people dying and others losing limbs due to bombs… even children were dying, so we decided to flee,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI saw a neighbor of mine dead after her house was bombed. She died along with her two children in the house. She was also pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSIZI Congolese refugees described neighbors 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. \u201cI have 10 kids, but I\u2019m here with only three. I don\u2019t know what happened to the other seven, or their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-519710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n