Hundreds of people have fled heavy fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo after M23 rebels clashed with Congolese forces backed by thousands of Burundian soldiers. The violence erupted in the Ruzizi Plain near the DRC’s borders with Rwanda and Burundi. Survivors described bombs falling on civilians fleeing an initial attack on their communities.

Marie Mapenzi: “We were about to climb the mountain just after the Luberizi bridge. When we arrived at the first houses of Mutarule, those who were in front and behind us weren’t hit, but us who were in the middle, that’s where the bomb fell, in succession, the first, the second and the third. That’s when some people started falling and others died on the spot. I was injured and thought it was only me, but my child who was on my back was also hit.”

The fighting came just one day after President Trump hosted the leaders of the DRC and Rwanda in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which the State Department has renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, where they signed an agreement aimed at ending the decadeslong conflict in the eastern DRC. Trump declared he’d brought peace to the region, describing it as a “glorious triumph” and a “miracle.”