Amnesty International: M23 Killed 18 Miners, Trafficked Gold and Coltan to Rwanda

Amnesty International published a report Sept 21, 2026 documenting abuses by M23 fighters and collaborating security guards against artisanal miners at the Rubaya coltan mines (North Kivu) and the Lomera gold site (South Kivu). The rights group said 18 miners were killed — 10 beaten to death, 2 shot and 6 abducted and later found dead — and that 16 miners reported torture or ill-treatment, including detention in shipping containers and underground cells known locally as 'ndake.' Miners described being forced to work underground for over a week at a time, and seven recounted coerced recruitment into M23 military training. Amnesty also documented a gold-trafficking route running from Lomera, where sacks of gold-bearing soil were loaded onto boats and shipped across Lake Kivu to Kamembe, Rwanda. Amnesty's Secretary General said 'Rwanda-backed M23 is committing horrific human rights abuses ... against artisanal miners in eastern DRC.' Neither M23 nor Rwanda had responded to the findings as of publication.