Inside the Rwanda refugee camp where people were forced to flee as rebel groups ravage their homeland

Published

2 years ago

December 23, 2023

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Congolese men, women, and children are fleeing ethnic violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as tensions soar between two neighbouring governments.

Rwanda stands accused of supporting the M23 rebels fighting against the forces of DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, who recently likened Rwandan president Paul Kagame to Adolf Hitler at a campaign rally preceding his 20 December presidential election run.

A historic transit camp for Congolese refugees was forced to reopen earlier this year to accommodate the influx of civilians fleeing heightened violence in eastern DRC.

The Nkamira Transit Camp is currently brimming with Tutsi men, women, and children who escaped targeted ethnic assaults by militants belonging to the dozens of different rebel groups ravaging their homeland.

Sixty-year-old Mutwarutwa arrived here at the end of November. She fled her home with nothing but the clothes on her back as Mayi Mayi rebels attacked her village.

“One day I was at home and we were told that there was going to be an attack. We decided to run and then suddenly bombs were falling and guns attacking us. We had to leave with absolutely nothing,” she says.

“We did not have money to get on a motorbike so we decided to run and hide in the forest. Eventually we made our way here.”

Mutwarutwa is not alone. 450,000 people were displaced by violence in eastern DRC’s North Kivu province in just the six weeks of October to late November.

Only 20km from the Goma-Gisenyi crossing straddling North Kivu, Nkamira is the first stop for many of them fleeing to Rwanda. In November, the camp was receiving around 200 new arrivals a day.

Angelique is sat next to Mutwarutwa on a blue mat covering the hard ground. This tented allotment has been her home since she fled North Kivu with her children and husband in February.

Angelique’s husband was killed as they made their way out of danger and she says her father, who stayed behind, is currently in hiding from the rebels.

“We look different so we are hated and just killed. We were told that, as Tutsis, we would be targeted again and again until we leave,” Angelique tells us with a painfully resigned look in her eye.

She describes her body aches from months of sleeping on the hard floor.

“Back home, we had beds and mattresses and everything,” says Angelique.

“But at least here we can sleep,” quips Mutwarutwa. The terror kept them awake long before the attack finally came.

They both say they want to return home to DRC once there is peace. In Rwanda, they have safety but little else.

Money for mattresses, soap and sanitary pads dried up in July.

The UN Refugee (UNHCR) Appeal for Rwanda was only 38% funded this year – the worst deficit in recent times.

In Nkamira’s kitchen, pots that once made carrots, cabbage, spinach, and rice are now only serving a meal of corn and beans.

At the medical clinic, sick toddlers with chest infections are given paracetamol.

In Kigali, UNHCR Rwanda spokesperson Lilly Carlisle tells us the cuts have been expansive.

“We have had to limit access to health care. We have had to cut our cash assistance programmes for non-food items, which are things like soap, household goods and sanitary pads for women,” she says.

We speak to her as the UK-Rwanda treaty is being finalised. A £240 million deal to bring in deported asylum-seekers from the UK that the UNHCR has taken a firm stand against.

I ask Lilly what it is like to witness so much money paid for people who are yet to arrive and do not want to be here.

“It is on us as the international community to continue to support the existing refugee population here in Rwanda.

“They’ve been here for many years but that doesn’t mean that their needs are any less valid,” she responds.

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

Published

11 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.

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Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

Published

23 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.

Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.

Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.

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IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

Published

1 day ago

July 13, 2025

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IDF blames 'technical error' after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.

Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.

The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.

Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.

Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.

When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.

In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.

Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.

Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.

The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.

More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.