Overview

• Human Rights Watch reported on August 20 that M23 fighters executed at least 140 civilians in mid‑July across 14 North Kivu villages near Binza.
• UN rights investigators previously put the July death toll at a minimum of 319, with survivors describing farmers shot in their fields and days spent hiding among corpses.
• Amnesty International detailed gang rapes, summary killings, attacks on hospitals, and enforced disappearances by Rwanda‑allied armed groups, naming M23 and Wazalendo.
• Rwanda and M23 denied responsibility for the killings, while Congo’s government called for an international investigation and urged enforcement of withdrawals pledged in the Washington accord.
• The Washington agreement and the Doha track have failed to curb violence, with M23 saying it was pulling out of the Qatar‑mediated talks and U.S. action referenced largely as earlier sanctions on actors tied to the conflict.