Newly appointed rebel authorities in eastern DRC bury blast victims

Twelve victims of a deadly blast at a rally last week in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were laid to rest on Tuesday in a ceremony organised by newly appointed rebel authorities.

The incident took place last Thursday in the city of Bukavu that has been under the control of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels since February. The DRC government and the insurgents traded blame for the attack.

Witnesses said a grenade intended to hit a convoy of rebel leaders in the city's central square missed its mark.

The explosion resulted in the deaths of 17 people, new provincial vice governor Dunia Masumbuko Bwenge told reporters. He said 11 people died instantly and the others succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

At the funeral ceremony, residents sang and a priest sprinkled holy water on coffins. Women who lost husbands and sons in the attack grieved when the coffins were loaded in a truck and transported to a cemetery.

Claude Balolebwami Nyarubasa said grenade explosions killed his older brother Bruno,  who was passing through the square where the meeting was held.

“We are very worried. We ask our government to guarantee us peace. We plead with the government to help us, let these killings stop,” Nyarubasa told Reuters.

The DRC's army said last Friday Rwandan troops and rebels had fired rockets and grenades into a crowd gathered for a speech by a rebel leader. Rwanda has denied supporting M23.

The leader of a rebel alliance, Corneille Nangaa, blamed DRC President Felix Tshisekedi for the attack.

The latest M23 rebel advance is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in eastern DRC, rooted in the spillover of Rwanda's 1994 genocide into the DRC and the struggle for control of the country's vast mineral resources and national identity.