A Bradford couple have told of their fears for their daughter after her home city was seized by rebels accused of horrific war crimes.

Rebel group M23 has said it is ready to march on the capital city of Kinshasa and take control of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), having captured Goma, the main city in the east of the country.

Human Rights Watch has said that M23 had committed “widespread war crimes in eastern (DRC)”. Now Ben and Kongosi Mussanzi, who fled the DRC 11 years ago after being targeted by the militia themselves, are watching on helpless as their daughter, Dr Mapenzi Mussanzi, who has a four-month-old child, remains in Goma helping those wounded in the conflict.

The 32-year-old was left in DRC when her parents had to make the decision of which four of their seven children they could flee to the UK with in 2001.

She is being taken to work by ambulance in the hope rebels will not target medical vehicles.

Mr Mussanzi, who lives on Otley Road, Bradford, and is a community development officer for Sharing Voices, a Bradford mental health organisation, said his daughter would remain in Goma because she had taken an oath at medical school to help those caught up in war.

The former radiographer and his psychologist wife are terrified and fear the conflict will get worse. They took part in a peace vigil yesterday in the city centre organised by the Bradford Congo Campaign, a coalition of organisations and individuals including Bradford Centre Resolution Conflicts, Bradford Rape Crisis and Holme Wood Ethnic Minorities.

He said: “We are really worried about the situation. We are hearing that rebels are getting into houses and kidnapping people.

“In the Congo people get raped and killed. M23 are claiming they want to bring democracy in the country but behind the scenes they are doing dirty stuff like killing, kidnapping, and people are disappearing. Many people have been injured and the doctors are not leaving because they want to serve the people. Six million people have been killed in the DRC since 1996 and the fact we are still alive is a miracle.”

Mrs Mussanzi said: “As a mother watching the situation in Goma it brings me pain worse than childbirth because I have my daughter and her baby there. It is too dangerous to go out of the home for supplies and they have no electricity or water.”

A UN Security Council resolution demands an end to foreign support for the M23 rebels.