After months of tension, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) accusing Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion (for “Movement of March 23”), Kinshasa announced, Saturday, October 29, the expulsion of the Rwandan ambassador present in the country.
On the same day, the M23, a former Tutsi rebellion which had resumed arms at the end of 2021, gained ground in eastern DRC, seizing in particular two towns, Kiwanja and Rutshuru-centre, located on the national road 2 (RN 2), strategic axis serving Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu.
In view of this offensive, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monusco) announced that it had “raised the alert level of its troops, deployed to support the FARDC [les forces armées de la RDC] in their operations against the M23”. “It provides air support, intelligence and equipment”has she clarified on Twitter.
Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of aggression
At the end of the day, the President of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi, led in Kinshasa “an enlarged meeting of the Higher Defense Council” to assess the situation after “a series of attacks” carried out by the M23 “supported by the Rwandan army”, said in the evening the government spokesman, Patrick Muyaya, in a press release read on official television. According to him, “It has been observed in recent days a massive arrival of elements of the Rwandan army” to support the M23 “with a view to a general offensive against the positions of the armed forces” Congolese.
Therefore, he added, “the Superior Council of Defense asks the government to expel, within 48 hours of its notification, Mr. Vincent Karega”Ambassador of Rwanda in the DRC, in particular because “of his country’s persistence in attacking the DRC”.
In the morning, residents and local officials interviewed by telephone said that the rebels had taken control of the localities of Kiwanja and Rutshuru-centre. Four peacekeepers were injured in the Kiwanja fighting: two by mortar fire and two others by small arms, Monusco said in a statement.
An official of Rutshuru General Hospital, for his part, reported “a few injured in Kiwanja following a small resistance”. Most “Calm has returned. People are starting to circulate and open the shops”he added, on condition of anonymity.
Blue helmets accused of ineffectiveness
A Compound, “in our neighborhood we recorded three dead, a man, and a woman and her child, killed by shells falling on the houses”said a resident, Eric Muhindo, interviewed by telephone from Goma.
Rutshuru-centre is located about 70 kilometers from Goma. M23 rebels are also reported in Rugari, some 30 kilometers from Goma, also on the RN 2. Between the two is a large FARDC base and headquarters in Virunga National Park at Rumangabo.
The M23, which claims to have taken up arms again because Kinshasa allegedly did not respect agreements on the reintegration of its fighters, seized the town of Bunagana, on the Ugandan border, in June. After several weeks of calm, it has been progressing since October 20 inside the territory of Rutshuru, where the fighting has caused the displacement of tens of thousands of people.
Blue helmets offer “direct support” to the FARDC, assured Monusco Sunday morning on Twitter. Deployed in the DRC since the end of 1999, the peacekeepers are facing increasing criticism. Many Congolese accuse them of ineffectiveness against the armed groups that have terrorized the east of the country for nearly thirty years.
In November-December 2012, the M23 had occupied Goma for about ten days, before being defeated the following year by the Congolese armed forces and blue helmets, after eighteen months of guerrilla warfare.
UN confidential report
Its resurgence has caused renewed tension between the DRC and Rwanda, accused by Kinshasa since the beginning of the year of active support for this rebellion.
A confidential UN report, published in the press in August, pointed to Rwandan involvement with the M23 and, this week, an American ambassador to the United Nations clearly mentioned “the assistance provided by the Rwandan defense forces to the M23”.
Rwanda denies and in return accuses the DRC – which also denies – of collusion with the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), a movement of Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom were involved in the genocide of the Tutsi in 1994 in Rwanda.
Several diplomatic initiatives have been launched to try to overcome the crisis, without success so far.