Eastern DRC: several villages come under M23 control

#Other countries : Several villages in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo have come under the control of the rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23) after clashes with the Congolese army in the Rutshuru region, we learned on Saturday from sources local.

“There were quite violent clashes around the power plant this morning”, in the Virunga park area, “the front line is in Matebe”, in the territory of Rutshuru, North Kivu province, told the press. ‘AFP a sources within this reserve.

“The M23 rebels occupy Gisiza, Gasiza, Bugusa, Bikende-Bugusa, Kinyamahura, Rwambeho, Tshengerero, Rubavu and Basare”, they still hold “Runyoni and Tchanzu”, detailed for AFP Nestor Bazirake, rapporteur for the organizations of the civil society of the groupement (a group of villages) of Jomba.

The army controls the city of Bunagana and the Rwanguba bridge, he said, adding that for “fear” of new rebel attacks, “the inhabitants fled to Uganda, Kiwanja and Rutshuru center”, two Congolese localities .

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The situation was rather “calm” in the neighboring locality of Kabindi, but “the inhabitants are afraid, some spend the night in schools and others in the forest”, testified to AFP a resident, Jean de Dieu Uwimana, reached by telephone from Goma, the provincial capital.

Attempts by AFP to contact regional military and administrative sources were unsuccessful.

Fighting between the army and the M23 resumed on Wednesday after a few days of calm.

In a video dated Friday, the M23 spokesperson said the rebel movement had “retaliated vigorously” against the army offensive.

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Coming from a former Congolese Tutsi rebellion, the M23, also called the “Congolese Revolutionary Army”, was defeated in 2013 by the FARDC but reappeared at the end of last year, accusing the Kinshasa authorities of not having respected commitments on the demobilization of its combatants.

On March 28 and 29, he left his high bastions to come and attack army positions.

After two days of heavy fighting, which caused the flight of tens of thousands of villagers towards the center of Rutshuru and towards Uganda, the rebels declared a “unilateral ceasefire”, claiming to want “a settlement peace of the crisis which pits (them) against the government”.