Amnesty International called for an end to the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a press release on Sunday. The organization also called upon the International Criminal Court to consider investigating such attacks as war crimes.

Amnesty claims that “inaccurate explosive weapons,” including primarily unguided rocket systems, have been used by both the Rwandan-backed M23 group and the Congolese Army (FARDC) more than 150 times between January and July 2024, killing over 100. Some of these attacks were conducted against areas near internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and areas where there had been no evidence of nearby military targets.

Amnesty has called for the belligerents to observe international humanitarian law (IHL), which prohibits attacks which indiscriminately or disproportionately harm non-combatants. Under Article 48 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, the Parties to a conflict shall “at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.” Indiscriminate attacks, which are not, or cannot be directed adequately against a specific military objective, are prohibited under Article 51.

Secretary General of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard claims that, “as the long history of conflict in eastern DRC has shown us, without accountability, human rights and humanitarian law violations will continue.”

Amnesty has further called upon the international community, including those with military cooperation with the DRC and Rwanda, including the EU, Belgium, SADC, and the UN, to do more to ensure their military support does not contribute to human rights and IHL violations.

Human Rights Watch similarly alleged that military confrontations between Rwanda forces and the M23 rebel group in eastern DRC worsened the humanitarian crises, in a report published in September 2024. The group has also reported unlawful killings and rapes committed by M23 fighters in June 2023. Regardless, Rwanda denied similar allegations raised by the US Department of State in May 2024, when internally displaced people reached 6.1 million.