The Army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the rebel group March 23 Movement (M23) have engaged in new clashes on Wednesday at several points in the province of North Kivu, located in the east of the country, amid increased fighting during the last week and despite the ceasefire agreed in November at a summit held in the Angolan capital, Luanda.
Sources quoted by the Congolese radio station Radio Okapi have indicated that the fighting is taking place in the locality of Ndondo, located near Rusinga – controlled by the rebels – and located in the territory of Masisi. Likewise, there are also clashes in Bambo, in Rutshuru territory, with no casualties reported for the moment.
The M23 claimed late Tuesday through its official account on the social network Twitter that the Congolese Army and its allied militias had carried out attacks with «heavy artillery» against positions of the group in Kilorirwe, Burungu, Kishise and Kitshanga. «These are densely populated areas. The M23 is defending itself,» he stressed, without elaborating on the situation.
The Congolese authorities, who have denounced that the M23 did not proceed to complete its withdrawal on the dates set at the Luanda mini-summit — in which the presidents of DRC and Rwanda, Felix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, respectively, took part — have recently launched security operations against the rebel group, which during the last few days have made advances in North Kivu.
The M23 is a rebel group made up mainly of Congolese Tutsis and operating mainly in North Kivu province. Following a conflict between 2012 and 2013, DRC and the group signed a peace agreement in December. In that fighting, the DRC Army was supported by UN troops. The group launched a new offensive in October 2022, which intensified in November, triggering a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and Rwanda over its role in the conflict.
Rwanda has accused the DRC of supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – an armed rebel group founded and composed mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda – and of using the Mai-Mai militias – Congolese nationalist militias formed to defend their tribal territory against the numerous rebel groups active since the 1990s – in the framework of the conflict. It has also denounced discrimination and acts of hatred against the Tutsi minority in the neighboring country.
At least eight people were killed in attacks on Tuesday by alleged members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia, which acts under the banner of the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), against several localities in the province of Ituri (east), according to the Congolese news portal 7sur7.
The administrator of the territory of Mambasa, Jean-Baptiste Muyapangi, has detailed that four civilians were killed in the locality of Masange, while the non-governmental organization Convention for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH) has pointed out that four others were killed in an «ambush» in Manzobe.
The ADF, a Ugandan group created in the 1990s, has been accused of the killing of hundreds of civilians in this part of the country. The group underwent a split in 2019 after Musa Baluku — sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States — swore allegiance to the jihadist group, under whose banner it has been operating ever since.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
