DRC: Bukavu hospital patients tell of being shot in chaos of Congolese withdrawal
Patients at hospitals in the second-largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have described how they sustained serious injuries during the chaotic withdrawal of the Congolese army and its allies in the days before Rwanda-backed M23 rebels marched in. Widespread shooting and looting preceded the arrival of the rebels in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, on 14 February, overwhelming the city’s poorly resourced hospitals. “I was lying on my bed at home, near Katana,” said 22-year-old Priscilla Nabintu from her bed in Bukavu’s general hospital. “All of a sudden, a bullet hit me [in the shin] and I started bleeding.” The facility near Lake Kivu was still very busy on Monday. Two blocks had been set aside for people with gunshot and shrapnel injuries. Mugisho Shalukoma, 20, was recovering from a leg amputation, the result of gunshot wounds. “I felt my foot getting harder and harder,” he said. “I didn’t see the person who shot me. Those around me brought me here.” Ghislaine Ntakwinja, 41, said she was in her house when unidentified gunmen shot her in her right hand. “Guns were ringing out in the city,” she said, sitting on her bed. “I heard armed men open my house’s door. They had guns. That’s when they shot me.” Her children rushed her to hospital. As M23 closed in on Bukavu, reports emerged of people collecting weapons and military equipment left by retreating Congolese forces. Deogracias Chibambo, a human rights activist with the Ça Suffit (That’s Enough) civic engagement group, said weapons had been circulating freely, including among children, causing enormous damage. “There was general panic. Bullets were being fired in many places,” he said. Last week, the UN human rights office accused M23 rebels of killing three children in Bukavu who were carrying weapons and wearing uniforms from an abandoned Congolese military camp, after they refused to surrender the weapons. M23 denied the accusation, terming it propaganda by the Congolese government. Esperance Mwamini Birindwa, a nurse with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which operates at the general hospital, said 162 people had been admitted with injuries related to the M23 takeover between 14 and 24 February. Of those with gunshot and shrapnel injuries, three had died. Follow link for full story....