A spokesperson for the M23 rebel group in eastern DR Congo has accused members of a government-allied militia of lynching and eating the body of a civilian in South Kivu province.

Lawrence Kanyuka said the "barbaric acts” of August 12 in the Misisi area were committed by the Mai-Mai/Wazalendo militiamen who are part of a government-led coalition fighting the M23.

"The Mai-Mai lynched, killed and consumed the flesh of the victim for the simple reason that he was Tutsi,” Kanyuka said Monday in a post on X.

Footage of the alleged incident has been circulated on social media.

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He said dozens of similar cases had been reported in eastern DR Congo in the past two years, adding that the M23 rebels were "determined to put an end to these crimes against our Congolese compatriots.”

Since November 2022, the United Nations Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention Alice Wairimu Nderitu has reported a rise in hate speech driven by the FDLR militia in eastern DR Congo and warned of risk factors for genocide and atrocities against the Tutsi communities.

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The M23, which is part of the rebel movement Congo River Alliance (AFC), has been fighting the Congolese army in North Kivu province since November 2021.

It accuses the Congolese government of driving violence against the Tutsi communities by using proxies such as the FDLR, a miltia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and local groups called the Wazalendo.

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"The AFC/M23 unreservedly condemns these barbaric acts committed by groups belonging to the Kinshasa government coalition, and demands an immediate end to these atrocities and the arrest of all criminals involved,” Kanyuka said.

"These practices of lynching and cannibalism perpetrated against the Tutsi and the Banyamulenge in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu take place in total indifference from human rights organizations,” he said.

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A report by UN experts in May pointed to the Congolese army’s use of militias such as the FDLR in the war with M23 rebels. The report said the FDLR had been integrated into the army, further escalating violence in North Kivu.

Eastern DR Congo, which is home to more than 200 armed groups, has been volatile for three decades.

Multiple international interventions have failed to end violence in the vast country’s eastern region, where a UN mission has operated since the late 1990s.