Binza, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been plagued by a wave extreme violence since July 2025. Multiple patients seen by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have testified to massacres – including of women and children. All testify to armed men as perpetrators, and some cite the M23 armed group. Although large-scale massacres appear to have subsided, civilians continue to suffer violence at the hands of armed groups daily.
Espérance* was working in the fields when the armed men in uniforms arrived.
“Wherever they found men, they systematically killed and decapitated them [with machetes],” she said. “We saw eight men killed.”
The women and children were rounded up and taken to a nearby river. As shots rang out, lifeless bodies began falling into the water. Espérance jumped in with her baby tied to her back, in a bid to save their lives.
When she made it to the other side, she realised that her baby had been shot in the head. “I untied my shawl and let his body slide into the river,” she said.
Once the shooting died down, Espérance returned to the site of the massacre to find the two of her remaining children murdered. Her screams of anguish drew the attention of a nearby armed man who raped and abandoned her.
Reports of massacres
Various organisations and media outlets have been publishing reports on the mass killings in Rutshuru territory, in DRC’s North Kivu province, since July.
Patients from Binza received by MSF in the hospital of Rutshuru at the time also described massacres and summary executions of civilians present in fields east of the Virunga national park in July. Witnesses have described the dead bodies of gunshot victims found near the village of Kiseguru. All survivors testify to armed men as perpetrators of the mass killings, while some cite the M23 armed group. While MSF is unable to verify a precise death toll, 124 victims of intentional injuries were treated at the General Reference Hospital in July and August, mostly coming from the health zones of Binza and Bambo.
MSF responds to wave of violence
The Rutshuru General Reference Hospital, where MSF provides surgical and other medical support, treated an average of 59 victims of violence per month from January to August– a 15% increase compared to the same period the year before and the highest figure since MSF started collecting such data in the area in 2019. Most gunshot victims seen by MSF teams in Rutshuru are civilians (representing 83% of all patients in July and August 2025).
Although large-scale massacres appear to have subsided, civilians continue to suffer violence at the hands of armed groups, with reports of abuses also committed by other armed groups (CMC, Wazalendo or FDLR), daily.
Marie*’s father and three brothers were killed in August. She said they were working in the fields of Binza. “We are scared. There is no peace here. You can be killed for nothing,” she said.
Besides treating the wounded, MSF has been forced to limit its response to an ongoing cholera outbreak in the area – due to restrictions imposed by AFC/M23. While it continues to operate a treatment centre in Kiseguru, limited access partly explains why the number of patients treated had fallen to approximately ten per day by the end of August.
A looming hunger crisis
Binza lies in an area of fertile lands where many seek to make a living through working the fields east of the Virunga National Park, where Wazalendo and FDLR armed groups are present. The M23 have been conducting military operations against those groups in the area in recent months. This confrontation —which local populations say have left fields strewn with decomposing bodies—have led to mass displacements of populations and prevented farmers from harvesting their crops or preparing the land for the next planting season, raising the prospect of a malnutrition crisis.
Judith* was shot in the leg while harvesting maize in July. “There were many of us. Others died there and there is no-one to bury them,” she said. “I can’t go back to the field for fear of being killed. They kill people who dare to look for food there.”
The following month, Justine* discovered her husband had been killed, while looking for plantain bananas. She had recently given birth when she was told the news.
“I now need to look after my children”, she said. “There is a constant threat of killing and rape. Hunger will kill people here. People are not working the land.”
MSF treated more than 400 cases of severe malnutrition among children under-five across the territory in July and August. Mass displacement triggered by insecurity will likely make the problem worse.
*Names have been changed.
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Related:
- conflict in DRC
- DRC
- MSF in DRC
