Congo trades blame with rebels over rally blasts that killed 13

Congo's government and Rwandan-backed M23 rebels traded blame on Friday for several explosions at a rally in the rebel-held eastern city of Bukavu in which 13 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded.

Congo's army said Rwandan troops, who it accuses of supporting the M23 rebels, fired on the crowd gathered in Bukavu's central square on Thursday with rockets and grenades during a speech by one of the uprising's leaders.

"The Rwandan army and its (proxies) bombed and fired live ammunition at the civilian population who, although forced to attend this meeting, expressed their disapproval of the Rwandan aggression," Congo's interior ministry said in a statement posted on X early on Friday.

A Rwandan government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kigali has in the past firmly denied that it supports the M23.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of a rebel alliance that includes M23, blamed Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi for the violence in Bukavu.

He told a press conference on Thursday that the grenades used were the same type as those used by the Burundian army, which has been heavily supporting Congo's military in the conflict. Reuters could not independently verify this.

Burundi's army spokesman said none of its soldiers were in Bukavu, but did not specifically address the grenade allegation.

The incident risked further escalating the war in the mineral-rich east of Democratic Republic of Congo, which has already drawn in several neighbouring countries.

Two witnesses told Reuters that one attacker had aimed to launch a grenade on a convoy of rebel leaders but missed the target and instead ended up killing people gathered at the rally.

"The grenade exploded too soon," one of the witnesses said. Both said the alleged attacker was killed by the blast.

"In such a highly secure environment, who can risk themselves to detonate devices or to fire shots, if it is not the organisers themselves," Congo's Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya told Reuters in an interview.

"All these incidents, we will make sure that they are documented and that, when the time comes, justice must be done."

Bodies at hospital

Outside Bukavu's general hospital, where a medical source said on Thursday 68 wounded people were being treated, around 30 relatives of victims waited to identify the remains of those killed.

The hospital said it would not release any bodies on Friday. A hospital psychologist told grieving families outside the morgue to leave their phone numbers so they could be contacted.

International sanctions, renewed investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Africa-lead peace negotiations have so far failed to halt the advance of the rebels, who have captured eastern Congo's two major cities - Goma as well as Bukavu.

Since January some 7,000 people have been killed and almost half a million people left without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed in fighting, the government says.

The United States sanctioned a Rwandan minister for his alleged role as a government liaison to the M23, while Britain threatened to pause bilateral aid and impose other diplomatic sanctions on Kigali unless it pulled out its troops from Congo.

Rwanda says the sanctions are punitive and that its own forces are acting in self defence in the region against Congolese troops and militia that have joined forces with anti-Kigali fighters.

"The sanctions, they have started but they are not enough. The proof is that the Rwandan army is still there," Muyaya said.

Ministers from Southern and Eastern African blocs were due to meet in Dar es Salaam on Friday to discuss details of a prospective ceasefire plan.

The blocs are looking into the possibility of deploying troops to secure areas of eastern Congo now under M23 rebel control, according to a document seen by Reuters.