DR Congo Mourning Victims of Eastern DR Congo Attack

Mourners gathered for the funerals of victims of an attack on a camp for internally displaced people in eastern DR Congo which the government has called a "war crime".

The funerals were held in Goma, the main city in North Kivu province, which has been plagued by fighting between M23 (March 23 Movement) rebels and the Congolese armed forces.

The mainly Tutsi-led M23 resumed its armed campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2021 and has seized swathes of territory.

Thirty-five coffins were lined up for the ceremony at Goma's largest stadium.

Burials later took place in Kibati, around 10 kilometers north of the provincial capital, in a special cemetery for victims of conflict.

On May 3, bombs struck huts in the Mugunga camp for displaced people on the outskirts of Goma.

Humanitarian sources and an official from the camp put the death toll at 15, but a government minister said 35 people had died and 37 were injured.

The DRC and the United States have accused the M23 of being behind the attack on the camps, whose residents had been driven out of their villages by an M23 offensive.

The DRC government has also condemned the bombing as an "act of terrorism" and called for "substantial political and economic sanctions" against Rwanda, which it accuses of supporting the M23 rebels.

The US State Department has also accused Rwandan forces of joining M23 rebels in the blasts on the camp and called on Kigali to punish those responsible.

The Rwandan government has dismissed the US accusation as "ridiculous", saying Rwanda has a "professional army" that would "never attack" a camp for displaced people.

On May 7, the conflict also hit neighboring South Kivu province when a bombing, blamed on the M23, killed seven people.