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Report nowThree employees of the aid organization of the Swiss Protestant Reformed Church (Heks) have been killed in an attack in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The employees were in the crisis area during a humanitarian mission, as Heks announced on Thursday.
The aid organization has set up a task force to repatriate the victims and support their families. The Heks also announced that the victims were local employees.
The task force is working at full speed to obtain reliable information about the background and circumstances of the attack as quickly as possible. Project work in the territory of Rutshuru in North Kivu, where the attack occurred on Wednesday, has been temporarily suspended.
Heks condemned the attack as a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Staff and management of the aid organization were deeply shocked and expressed their condolences to the families of those killed.
The rebel group M23 attacked Goma in the province of North Kivu at the end of January and captured it after days of fighting. According to UN figures, at least 2900 people have been killed in the fighting in Goma.
M23 fighters gather with new recruits at a police station in Goma, North Kivu, on February 6, 2025.
Image: Keystone
The rebels, who experts believe are supported by neighboring Rwanda, have been active in eastern Congo for years and have now gained control of large parts of North Kivu province. Some of the rarest and most valuable metals in the world are mined in large quantities in the resource-rich region, including coltan, gold, nickel, cobalt and copper.
07.02.2025, 00:38
07.02.2025, 07:21
