DR Congo army backed notorious Hutu rebel group- HRW

The Democratic Republic of Congo's army backed a notorious Rwandan Hutu rebel group in recent clashes with the M23 militia, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. 

The NGO said the Congolese military had armed and fought alongside a coalition of militias implicated in abuses.

This included the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu rebel group based in the DRC which the Rwandan government views as a threat and has regularly accused Kinshasa of supporting.

The Human Rights Watch findings come amid deep tensions between the two East African nations.

The DRC has accused its smaller neighbour of backing the M23 rebel group -- a primarily Congolese Tutsi militia that has captured swathes of territory this year. 

Rwanda denies the claim. But a report by independent United Nations experts seen by AFP in August found that Kigali had provided direct support to the M23.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said that Congolese army officers had themselves provided direct support to a coalition of militias, including the FDLR, which fought the M23 between May and August. 

Army officers provided FDLR fighters in Virunga National Park, for example, with "more than a dozen boxes of ammunition," the NGO said. 

Its senior Congo researcher Thomas Fessy stated that Congolese army units "are again resorting to the discredited and damaging practice of using abusive armed groups as their proxies".

"The Congolese government should end this support, which leads to military complicity in abuses, identify officers responsible, and hold them accountable," he added.

The DRC's army has yet to respond to the Human Rights Watch report.

The DRC and Rwanda have had strained relations since the mass influx of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. 

Relations began to thaw after DRC President Felix Tshisekedi took office in 2019 but the M23's resurgence reignited tensions.