"The DRC armed forces contained the enemy's brutality to the point of pushing them outside the town of Mweso ... Having realized that they had lost the city, the M23 terrorists, supported by the Rwandan army, indiscriminately dropped 120 mortar bombs on the town, killing 19 and injuring 27 innocent civilians," provincial army spokesman Guillaume Njike Kaiko was quoted as saying by Congolese broadcaster Radio Okapi.
Several houses in Mweso were blown apart by the bomb explosions, local sources were cited as saying.
The M23 (March 23) group, which fights for the interests of the Tutsi ethnic minority in the DRC, first rebelled against the government in 2012, but suffered a major military defeat in 2013 and was disbanded. In 2021, the rebels took up arms again, accusing the country's authorities of violating agreements to integrate disarmed M23 rebels into the army. The DRC has repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting the rebels, while Rwanda has denied any connections with the movement.