A clash between soldiers and pro-government militants in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo results in the death of at least six individuals, according to multiple sources on Sunday.
The event transpired on Saturday afternoon in the village of Mugerwa, approximately 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the city of Goma, under circumstances that are still unclear.
An anonymous security official reported that a dispute between soldiers and the self-proclaimed Wazalendo militiamen led to an exchange of gunfire.
“They shot at each other in this misunderstanding and there are six dead and nine wounded,” the security official said.
The occurrence follows last month’s confrontations with M23 rebels, disrupting several months of relative tranquility in the region.
Since initiating an offensive in late 2021, a Tutsi-led faction, the M23, has captured extensive areas, displacing over one million individuals from their residences.
The ongoing conflict involves the M23 rebels facing off against the Congolese army and allied militias, locally referred to as ‘Wazalendo.’
Specifics regarding the recent exchange of gunfire between soldiers and Wazalendo fighters remain unclear.
Mambo Kawaya, a civil society leader in the vicinity of Goma, informed AFP that six individuals lost their lives, and ten others sustained injuries.
Adolphe Muhire, a member of the DRC’s civil protection service near Goma, reported that the casualties included one soldier, one policeman, and four civilians who lost their lives.
“The toll is still provisional,” he said.
Three additional sources confirmed a comparable death toll, though they provided varying figures for the count of individuals injured in the incident.
For decades, militias have been a persistent issue in eastern DRC, stemming from the legacy of regional wars that erupted in the 1990s and 2000s.
Various Western nations, such as the United States and France, have asserted that Rwanda supports the M23, a claim vehemently denied by Kigali.