- Rwanda is fighting accusations of backing M23 rebel attacks in Goma, the most strategic city within the mineral-rich eastern DRC.
- Already, the UN and other humanitarian agencies have pulled out non-essential personnel out of Goma.
- Early this week protestors in Kinshasa attacked US, Rwanda, Kenya, Belgian and French embassies, demanding decisive counter against M23 rebels.
The war in Goma has sucked in Rwanda with authorities in Kigali increasingly fighting an avalanche of accusations that the country’s military is invading the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in concert with the M23 rebels. According to reports from both local and international media, “The Rwandan army is lining up at the [DRC] border, ready to invade,” an anonymous source privy to official on the ground told media.
“Large numbers of troops from Rwanda have been pouring across the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help rebels seize the regional capital of Goma.”
For the past few days, the report adds, soldiers from the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) have secretly crossed into eastern DRC to beef up the ongoing offensive by the M23 rebels. “Most of the RDF’s most senior commanders are said to have been deployed in the Rwandan city of Gisenyi, less than a mile across the border from Goma,” the report alludes.
Reuters reported Rwanda’s involvement in the roiling conflict, describing the new wave of fighting as; “The Rwanda-backed insurgency.” It added that it foresees the insurgency to be the first step towards a potential regional war breaking out. It says, backed by Rwandan forces, the M23 rebels have now entered Goma “marking a major turning point in a conflict with government forces that has raised fears of a spillover into a broader regional war.”
That be as it may, experts warn that; “Rwanda will not stop at Goma and is hoping to seize the city of Bukavu, which lies close to the border at the southern tip of Lake Kivu.”
Goma under attack: Is Rwanda invading DRC?
Rwanda has been accused of supporting DRC rebels for a long time, and of course, authorities in Kigali have always dismissed these allegations, terming them unfounded. As for the current reports of an influx of Rwandan troops, UN experts estimate that up to 4,000 RDF personnel were operating inside the DRC before the latest flare up in the conflict.
In past few days, fighting on the outskirts of Goma has intensified with reports placing the death toll at thirteen UN peacekeepers, nine from South Africa, three from the Malawi Defense Forces and a Uruguayan member of the UN force.
The fighting is now within the city limits, having swept through vast refugee camps that hold more than a million people. Reports differ as to who has the upper hand in Goma, is it the DRC army or the M23 rebels with the alleged Rwanda back up.
“There are pockets of resistance,” a U.N. source told Reuters, “but even our troops are coming under heavy fire, both at the airport and at our base. There’s no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23,” UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters and maintained that the only question is how many; “It’s difficult to tell exactly what the numbers are,” he said.
Why Rwanda wants DRC’s Goma
What is the motive? Goma, the city under attack is the largest urban area in the east of the DRC and a key route in the region’s minerals trade, the flow of transition metals and oil exploration. The DRC is the world’s top producer of tantalum and cobalt, all key components in batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones. What’s more, DRC has enormous deposits of coltan and gold.
A political scientist at Simon Fraser University and former U.N. investigator says Rwanda is benefiting from DRC’s minerals and that; “Mineral exports from Rwanda are now over a billion dollars a year. That’s about double what they were two years ago. And we don’t know how much, but a fair chunk of that is from the DRC,” he told media.
The International Tin Association, says over 250 tonnes of tin concentrate move through Goma every month.
Reports confirm that, other than the ongoing attack on Goma, rebels already captured the mining town of Lumbishi in South Kivu province.
Another area, Numbi, an eastern mining zone in South Kivu that is very rich in gold, tourmaline, and tin, tantalum and tungsten the 3T key minerals in computers and mobile phones is also reported to be under rebel’s vice-like grip.
Read also: Rwanda warns of confrontation with South Africa as conflict in DRC worsens
UN non-essential personnel pulled out, DRC recalls diplomats from Rwanda
Early this week, fierce protests engulfed DRC capital, Kinshasa, with thousands of people demanding the government pushes back the ongoing attack on Goma. As the protests surged, the mobs attacked and torched the embassies of France, Belgium, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and the United States on Tuesday.
As fighting escalates, international organizations including Mercy Corps have pulled out or are pulling out of the DRC. “With the fall of Minova, followed by the fall of Sake, which are key supply routes into Goma…we made some decisions, first to move out non-essential staff, pull back our teams from the ground where it was no longer safe to continue to provide humanitarian services,” Rose Tchwenko, the DRC’s country director for Mercy Corps, told press.
The UN press has reported that the agency has taken measures to protect its staff by moving them out of Goma.
“Non-essential UN personnel have been temporarily relocated from Goma and the surrounding area,” reads the report in part.
Meanwhile, the DRC has recalled its diplomats from Rwanda and gave Rwanda 48 hours to cease all diplomatic and consular activities in the country, a leaked foreign ministry letter to the Rwandan embassy has revealed.
The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea, has called for a ceasefire; “The United States will consider all the tools at its disposal in order to hold accountable those responsible for sustaining armed conflict, instability and insecurity,” she told press.
The foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, has called for much more stringent action to be taken, like an embargo on Rwanda’s “illicit exploitation and exportation of mineral resources in the DRC.”
According to Wagner, stopping mineral trade by Rwanda will help to “…interrupt financing of the aggression.”
The US has also urged the UN Security Council to take “…concrete measures to halt the offensive by the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels.”
In his defense, Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame says he agrees with the US government’s call for a ceasefire and to “address the root causes of the conflict once and for all.”