The Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Rwanda accuse each other of this revival of tension in the east of the country.
Le Monde with AFP
After four days of fighting which left at least ten dead and dozens of injured, the clashes continued on Monday October 24, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between the army and the rebels M23.
This former rebellion predominantly Tutsi took up arms at the end of 2021 by reproaching Kinshasa for not having respected agreements signed on March 23, 2009 on the reintegration of his fighters. The DRC accuses Kigali of supporting the M23, which Rwanda disputes.
“Unlike the declarations of the president of the DRC [affirming] that his country is focused on a diplomatic resolution of the conflict (…), recent declarations and actions” show that Kinshasa is “on the path of a continuous climbing continuous “said the Rwandan authorities in a statement.
“Since October 20, in its usual barbarism strategy, the M23, a supplement of Rwanda, has attacked the positions of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, causing unnecessary deaths again and thousands of displaced”, For his part, accused during a weekly press briefing in Kinshasa, Patrick Muyaya, Minister of Communication and government spokesperson. “We were forced to react,” he added. 2>
“locked up population”
An official assessment broadcast on Sunday evening by the army reported four civilians killed and 40 injured during the fighting which resumed Thursday in the territory of Rutshuru (Province of North Kivu) after several weeks of lull.
In the morning, a resident of Ntamugerga, Jean-Baptiste Mapendo, interviewed by phone from Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu, mentioned seven dead, buried on Monday morning “before the resumption of fights”. In the evening, he said that the balance sheet had moved to ten dead. Sunday, the chief of this village announced that he had just been taken by the M23. The movement has, since its armed reactivation, conquered on the ground in the province of North Kivu, especially in June the city of Bunagana, on the border with Uganda.
“The population is still locked up at the Ntamugerga hospital, other inhabitants are in schools, churches and the convent,” said Gédéon Serugari, head of the Bweza group, in which Ntamogenga, village located About 4 km from the RN2, a strategic route serving Goma.
Doctors Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Sunday that 500 people, some injured, took refuge in a Ntamogenga convent. The NGO called for the creation of a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians. According to the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office (OCHA) in the DRC, at least 23,000 people have been moved by this violence since October 20, figure including 2,500 inhabitants having crossed the Ugandan border.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people because of the fights
Since March, “clashes have moved at least 186,000 people, bearing the total number of people displaced in the Rutshuru territory to more than 396,000”, according to the same source.
“We call on all armed groups to respect international humanitarian law” and to allow organizations “to access people who need it most,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary general of the United Nations (UN).
In his press briefing, Patrick Muyaya mentioned diplomatic initiatives launched in Nairobi, Luanda or on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York by French President Emmanuel Macron, who had gathered the Congolese presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan Paul Kagame, to try to bring peace to the region.
also mentioning the recent visit to London of the Congolese head of state, he recalled that he had met King Charles III. The two leaders “approved on the need to combine efforts, and the king promised to get involved, to make Rwanda enough pressure so that all these killings stop in the eastern part of the DRC”, he declared.