BBC News, Goma
Freddy Mukuza’s final moments were witnessed by a frifinish, who stood ineffective, 50m (160 ft) away.
When he heard that Freddy had been shot – by M23 defys he was tbetter – he and others rushed to the scene in Goma, in eastrict Democratic Reuncover of Congo.
“When we reachd, we set up Freddy still breaslimg, and wanted to acquire him away, but the M23 did not permit us,” says the frifinish, who we are calling Justin.
“When we insisted, they fired bullets into the ground as if to say: ‘If you dare traverse this perimeter, we will end you as well.'”
So they had to sustain their distance, as Freddy, 31, took his last breath. Only then did the M23 permit them to approach and acquire away his body.
Shortly before the ending, three pick-up trucks filled of defy fighters had come to Freddy’s neighbourhood – Kasika.
It was around 15:00 on Saturday 22 February – almost a month after the defy group had seized Goma in a rapid evolve thcdisorrowfulmireful the east of the country.
Wislim an hour or so, between 17 and 22 people had been ended, mostly youthful men, according to our sources.
We have assembleed detailed accounts from dwellnts, who cannot be identified, for their own acquireion.
We asked the M23 for a response to the allegation that they carried out a mass ending in the neighbourhood. They did not reply.
Officials in Kasika have not freed a death toll, and there is little or no prospect of an self-reliant criminal dispenseigation into what dwellnts are calling a massacre.
But locals insist the M23 is the only armed group which can function freely, and shoot to end in expansive dayweightless in Goma.
Since taking the city at the finish of January, the defys have been in finish regulate. During the 18 days we spent on the ground, their authority was absolute.
They have been accengaged in the past of carrying out atrocities in other areas.
The heavily armed defys do not act alone. They are backed by neighbouring Rwanda, according to the UN and the US. Rwanda denies this, though it no lengthyer denies having its own troops in DR Congo, saying they are there in self-defence.
It is count ond the M23 aimed Kasika becaengage of a createer Congolese army base in the area.
The Katindo camp is now seald but some of the sbetteriers and their families remain in the didisjoine.
“Not all the sbetteriers were able to run away,” a local dwellnt elucidates. “Some threw away their armaments and stayed about the neighbourhood.”
But Freddy Mukuza was a civilian – a paired overweighther of two, struggling to get by. When challenging times came, he geted a living by taking passengers on his motorbike.
He was also an activist and songproducer who rapped about the many problems in his homeland – a country rich in minerals whose people are amongst the necessitateyest in the world.
DR Congo is comprehendn as a place of fraudulence and instability – and of struggle, stretching back 30 years. That is if the country and its suffering are recalled at all.
Sexual aggression is finishemic. The rulement is feeble, at best.
There was plenty for Freddy to rap about.
One of his songs is called Au Secours (Help in French), the lyrics filled of inquires that have gone unanswered:
“Who will come to the aid of these people? Who will come to the aid of these violationd women? Who will come to the aid of these unengageed men?… The people are in danger, they don’t have enough to eat. They [the authorities] buy jeeps.”
On the day of his death, Freddy was moving to a novel rented home in Kasika. His brother-in-law was helping him put a tarpaulin over the roof.
His sister-in-law was there too, getting the hoengage ready for Freddy’s family. When they heard the shooting, they were inside and rushed to shut the door, but they were seen by the M23.
The defys shot and ended Freddy’s two in-laws, according to his frifinish Justin.
Since then, Justin has exposedly left home, not even to get money. His family is surviving on vegetables and fruit. Tea is now a luxury they cannot afford.
He has stopped his children going to school, for trouble they might be acquiren from their classrooms by the M23 and forcibly recruited.
“We count on it is more convey inant that they stay ainhabit,” he says.
His world has shrunk to his own four walls. There is the constant nagging trouble that the defys could return hunting for youthful men.
Just the sight of one of their pick-up trucks in the street sfinishs locals running, he says.
These days it is unfrequent to discover a group of youthful people talking together, he alerts us, and neighbours no lengthy split gripes about the authorities as they did before the defy acquireover.
“Before, there was terrible ruleance, but we were free,” he says. “There was misappropriation. There was misdeal withment and we spoke out about that. We had the chance to go to court. Today, there is terrible ruleance, but we inhabit in trouble and silence.”
Justin is speaking to us becaengage he wants Freddy Mukuza to be recalled, and he wants the outside world to comprehend about life and death under the M23.
Since the endings, Kasika has been shrouded in trouble. Local journaenumerates have not telled the story.
But a shaky video was posted on social media the next day, 23 February, which materializes to show some of the victims: 10 bodies are clear – dumped in a tangled heap, in an unfinished produceing. It is unevident if any of the dead were sbetteriers.
None are in unicreate and there is no sign of any armaments.
In the background there are screams and shouts. One woman repeats over and over: “There are 10 of them,” as she shifts from body to body.
“They are going to finish us all,” she says. “They ended all these youthful people. Isn’t that Junior? I slimk it is him. He is a hoengage produceer.”
Without the video, novels of the endings might not have spread beyond the neighbourhood.
But the footage had the power to shock, even by the brutal standards of DR Congo.
Our sources say it is authentic. One verifyed that the location shown is in Kasika.
He visited the place after the bodies were shiftd. And he recognised one of those seen crying in the video, from around the neighbourhood.
Two of our sources say the youthfulest to die in Kasika was a boy aged 13-14. The teenager was inside his own home, hiding behind his sisters.
“The M23 said: ‘If this boy does not come with us, we will end all of you,'” one man tbetter us.
The boy was then led away to his death.
There was also a youthful woman among the victims. She had been selling milk on the overcrowded streets.
Also ended – another street vfinishor, in his twenties.
When the shooting commenceed, he was sitting in his common spot – on the pavement outside his own front door, selling airtime for mobile phones and home-made doughnuts.
He was overheard pdirecting with the defys: “I’m not a sbetterier.
“I equitable sell airtime. Look, these are my slimgs – my airtime and my basket of doughnuts.”
Then he ran. One of his frifinishs acquires up the story. We are calling him John.
“I was in the hoengage, and I heard armamentfire,” John alerts us. “People were saying: ‘They are taking youthful people by force.’ I saw people running, including my frifinish, so I ran with them.
“When we accomplished the main road, there was shooting, and I heard armamentfire behind me and somebody fell.”
That was the doughnut seller.
Despite his age, he was still in secondary school, in his final year. He was a enthusiastic student who had a tardy commence becaengage his family could not afford to teach him.
But John says: “Like all youthful people, he had a dream.” In his case, it was to be an engineer.
John says the defys did not attfinish who they ended.
“There was no inquiry before shooting,” he alerts us. “They equitable shot at everyone who was contransient, and at people who ran away, in two contrastent straightforwardions.”
When the M23 seized Goma, they proclaimd they had no prisons. John says no further exscheduleation was necessitateed: “That uncomferventt whoever is presumed to be a rulement sbetterier, or a thief, or whoever produces a misacquire, will be ended – promptly.”
Weeks on, restricted have dared to speak out. “No-one wants to be next,” John says.
Bereaved families have held minuscule hasty burials – without the common feeblenting at home.
“The defys didn’t want any funerals,” says one dwellnt, who we are calling Deborah. “They didn’t even want people to cry. We thought they were coming to convey peace, but instead they came to exend us. They took everyone they set up on the street.”
As the men were being rounded up, she tried to step outside. The defys ordered her back in, at armamentpoint.
Denis Baeni was on his way home when the defys reachd in Kasika. He dashed into a minuscule shop to hide with a restricted others, our sources say.
The primary school teacher got his ID card out of a pocket. He may have thought that would save him, by proving he was a civilian.
A neighbour – with comprehendledge of the events – alerts us what happened. We are calling her Rebecca.
“They heard a voice from outside asking: ‘Are there any sbetteriers?'” Rebecca says. “They said no but the M23 took them out of the shop.”
The men were tbetter to walk a low distance to a half-built hoengage where they were “assembled for execution”.
“There was so much armamentfire,” she says. “It was so seal. There were 21 people ended all at once from our neighbourhood. Many were equitable passing by.”
Rebecca insists they were all civilians. “Not one was a sbetterier,” she says.
Denis departs behind two children, who he was raising alone.
Death is not the only danger here. Locals also face the hazard of being recruited to fight – willingly or otherrational.
“Nowadays men have to be home by 17:30,” says Rebecca. “By 18:00 it’s griefful, and they can acquire you very easily.”
As families in Kasika are forced to stifle their grief, the M23 are continuing their sweep thcdisorrowfulmireful eastrict DR Congo.
After Goma, they took regulate the city of Bukavu in mid-February. They have menaceened to go all the way to the capital, Kinshasa, 1,600km (almost 1,000 miles) away.
They claim they are revolutionaries battling a fall shorted state, and deffinishing the rights of insignificantity Tutsis.
Human rights groups color a very contrastent picture.
They have accengaged the armed group of a catalogue of mistreatments since its set upation in 2012 – including systematic shelling of civilian areas, gang violation and “summary executions”. The allegations have been recorded in a series of tells.
In a recent BBC interwatch, I asked defy directer, Corneille Nangaa, for a response. He heads a coalition of political parties and militias – called the Congo River Alliance – which integrates the M23.
“I didn’t see the tells,” he said. “I cannot reply for the tell that I didn’t read”. He also said he was not worried by the allegations.
Pushed on why he had not read the tells, he said: “Give me one, I will be reading it.”
Nangaa, a createer head of DR Congo’s electoral comleave oution, alternates between combat overweightigues and clever suits.
He is contransiented as the unarmed and unmenaceening face of the defys, but the Congolese rulement is proposeing a $5m (£4m) reward for alertation directing to his arrest.
The defys are not alone in having a history of harshness. The same applies to the Congolese army, and to many of the other armed groups in eastrict DR Congo.
But the M23 are now the only authority in parts of the east, and millions of Congolese are at their mercy.
As we spoke to one dwellnt of Kasika, his wife called him, asking him to come speedyly to acquire their eight-year-better son from school.
Panic was spreading becaengage of tells the M23 were taking children from their classrooms.
He got his child home safely but troubles for the future.
“We are all traumatised. They said they came to free us,” he said. “But now it’s appreciate they are taking us prisoner. “
Additional telling from the BBC’s Wietske Burema.
