A Congolese army drone struck rebel positions on the Misekera hill near Mushaki market in Masisi territory on Saturday morning. AFC/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka says the attack caused civilian casualties and destroyed homes. The FARDC has not commented.
MUSHAKI / MASISI, NORTH KIVU — A military drone attributed to the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) struck a rebel position in Mushaki, in the Masisi territory of North Kivu, early Saturday morning. The strike targeted the Misekera hill, located on the farm of national deputy Édouard Mwangachuchu, who is currently detained in Kinshasa, near the Mushaki market, a strategically important locality in the territory. Both local sources on the ground and the AFC/M23 movement confirmed the attack.
According to local sources, the drone targeted a gathering of senior AFC/M23 officials on the Misekera hill shortly after dawn. A witness near the site said they had observed unusual movements in the area hours before the strike. “Yes, M23 officials passed through here around 11 p.m. in three jeeps heading toward Mushununu,” a local source told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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The AFC/M23 movement confirmed the strike. Spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka stated that the attack targeted densely populated areas in Masisi territory, resulting in numerous civilian casualties and the destruction of homes. He characterised the strike as an indiscriminate attack on civilian infrastructure.
The FARDC had not issued any official comment on the Mushaki strike at the time of publication. Kinshasa has consistently not acknowledged individual drone operations in AFC/M23-held territories, though it has previously defended its air campaign as targeting rebel military positions.
Saturday’s strike in Mushaki is the latest in a sustained FARDC drone campaign across Masisi territory, where the Congolese army has been conducting a major ground and air offensive since late February. The FARDC, reinforced by Wazalendo militia fighters, has been trying to roll back the AFC/M23 territorial gains in southern Masisi, particularly around the mining town of Rubaya, one of the world’s most significant sources of coltan.
The campaign has already produced significant results, as well as significant controversy. On February 24, FARDC drone strikes around Rubaya were credited with enabling loyalist forces to recapture the town, following weeks of intense fighting. A separate strike around the same time killed a senior M23 military leader, a high-value hit for the Congolese army’s air campaign. FARDC aircraft operating from the Kisangani airport, headquarters of the army’s Third Defence Zone in central DRC, are believed to have conducted many of these strikes.
But the campaign has also drawn heavy criticism over civilian harm. On January 2, a FARDC drone strike in Masisi-Centre killed at least 22 people and wounded 47, according to Masisi General Hospital’s medical director. The strike hit a building housing a sub-base of the NGO War Child, and damaged surrounding homes. M23 staged a high-profile symbolic funeral at Goma’s Unity Stadium for the victims. The rebel movement said all those killed were civilians; at least one independent researcher disputed that figure, suggesting some victims may have been combatants. The FARDC did not comment on that strike either.
The question of who bears responsibility for civilian harm in Masisi has become one of the defining disputes of the current military campaign. The AFC/M23, through spokespeople like Kanyuka, has made systematic use of drone strike casualties, real and alleged, as a propaganda and diplomatic tool, casting the FARDC’s air operations as indiscriminate attacks on civilian communities. Independent verification of casualty figures has consistently been difficult, given that insecurity and poor roads in Masisi prevent access to many affected areas.
The Congolese government, for its part, has accused the rebel movement of using civilian populations as cover for its own military positions and command structures, a charge that, if proven, would shift legal and moral responsibility for civilian casualties onto AFC/M23 under the laws of armed conflict. The Misekera hill in Mushaki, the site of Saturday’s strike, appears to illustrate that tension directly: local sources indicate that M23 officials were moving through and gathering in the area, while the rebel movement insists civilians bore the brunt of the attack.
The FARDC has not commented on this latest strike. Kivu Post was unable to independently verify casualty figures or the full extent of damage in Mushaki at the time of publication.
The Mushaki area sits along a key corridor in Masisi territory, a vast and mineral-rich district that has been at the centre of the eastern DRC conflict for decades. M23’s grip on the territory has enabled the movement to access and tax mines producing coltan and other critical mineral resources that the U.S. Treasury, in its sanctions designation of Rwanda’s Defence Force this week, described as part of the economic incentive underpinning Rwanda’s military support for the rebel group.
For the residents of Mushaki and the surrounding communities, Saturday’s strike is one more violent episode in a conflict that has already uprooted hundreds of thousands from their homes across Masisi. Whether it represents a turning point in the military balance or simply another morning of war will only become clear in the days ahead.
Editor’s Note: Casualty figures and descriptions of damage in this report are based on statements by the AFC/M23 movement and local sources. Kivu Post was unable to independently verify these claims at the time of publication. The FARDC has not issued a statement on the Mushaki strike.