After clashes with the Congolese army in the Rutshuru region of North Kivu, the rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23) occupied several localities.
© Guerchom NDEBO / AFP
A FARDC soldier on April 3, 2022, 70 km from Goma in eastern DRC.
“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, province of North Kivu, said a source within this reserve.
“The M23 rebels occupy Gisiza, Gasiza, Bugusa, Bikende-Bugusa, Kinyamahura, Rwambeho, Tshengerero, Rubavu and Basare”, they still hold “Runyoni and Tchanzu”, added Nestor Bazirake, rapporteur for civil society organizations in the group. (a group of villages) of Jomba.
The army controls the town of Bunagana and the Rwanguba bridge, he said, adding that by “fear” of new rebel attacks“the inhabitants fled to Uganda, Kiwanja and central Rutshuru”, two Congolese localities.
“People are scared”
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 a resident, Jean de Dieu Uwimana, reached by telephone. from Goma, the provincial capital. Other regional military and administrative sources could not be reached at this time.
To read M23 in the DRC: why tension is rising between Tshisekedi, Kagame and Museveni
Fighting between the army and the M23 resumed on Wednesday after a few days of calm. In a video dated Friday, the M23 spokesman said the rebel movement had “retaliated vigorously” against the army offensive.
The M23 accuses the authorities of Kinshasa of not having respected commitments on the demobilization of its combatants
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 authorities of Kinshasa 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”.
(With AFP)