North Kivu governor killed, according to M23 rebels in DR Congo

M23 rebels claim that on Thursday, January 23, the military governor of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu Province was slain on the battlefield.

According to reports, Maj Gen Peter Chirimwami, who was stationed in the province seat of Goma, traveled Thursday close to Sake, a town where the government coalition and the rebels had engaged in heavy battle in recent weeks.

“General Chirimwami is dead,” M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka wrote on X shortly after midnight Thursday. The military leader was identified as the “Commander-in-Chief of the FDLR,” a militia affiliated with the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi that is a member of the Congolese military coalition.

The UN-sanctioned FDLR has been operating in eastern DR Congo for about thirty years, and the M23 claim that they fight to protect people who were slaughtered by the group.

“He was killed in Kasengezi while visiting the front lines to have his photo taken.”

By Friday morning, there had been no confirmation of Chirimwami’s death.

In September 2023, Chirimwami was named North Kivu’s military governor.

His passing was reported on Thursday as tensions in Goma escalated due to the M23 rebels’ threat to march on the city, which is home to over two million people.

According to reports, hundreds of injured persons were carried in from the surrounding battlefield on Thursday, overwhelming the primary hospital in Goma.