The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Felix Tshisekedi, and the East African Community (EAC) mediator for the conflict with the March 23 Movement (M23), have stressed that the «foreign groups» that «do not surrender» will be «expelled by force».
The EAC issued a communiqué following a meeting between Tshisekedi and the former Kenyan president in which it revealed that both «reaffirmed the commitment to ensure that foreign armed groups that do not voluntarily surrender and return to their countries of origin will be forcibly expelled from the territory of the DRC».
They also called on «all Congolese» to «join the Nairobi process, led by the EAC, to restore peace and security in eastern DRC and lay the foundations for sustainable collective prosperity in the country and the entire EAC region».
The communiqué was published in the midst of the fighting of recent days in the province of North Kivu (east), which has allowed the M23 to advance in the territory of Nyiragongo, specifically with the capture of Kibumba and Buhamba, as reported by the Congolese news portal Actualité.
Medical sources quoted by this media indicated that «most of the inhabited areas» of these localities are «in the hands of the rebels». «The armed forces have retreated and the rebels are on a hill at the level of Ribiranga», they specified.
For its part, the French government has condemned «with the utmost firmness» the M23 offensive and has asked the group to «withdraw immediately from all the areas it occupies». The French Foreign Ministry has appealed «to all armed groups» for a «cessation of fighting» and «participation in the disarmament process».
«France reiterates its support for regional diplomatic efforts to favor a de-escalation and a settlement of the crisis, within the framework of the Nairobi and Luanda processes,» it said in its communiqué, in which it pledged to «lend its support to these efforts.»
It also applauded the deployment of Kenyan troops in the framework of an EAC mission and stressed its respect for the «sovereignty and territorial integrity» of the DRC and «each of the countries of the region», according to a communiqué published on its website.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against DRC Army positions in North Kivu, seven years after the parties reached a truce. UN experts have accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the rebels, although both countries have denied this.
The conflict has also led to a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of supporting the M23, although Kigali has rejected these claims and has accused its neighbor of allegedly supporting the rebel movement of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
