- M23 rebels reportedly at Kavumu, about 40km north of mineral-rich Bukavu area.
- UN experts claim the M23 rebels – one of over 100 militias seeking control in DRC’s east – is receiving support from about 4,000 soldiers from Rwanda.
- According to Kinshasa, Rwandan soldiers are pillaging valuable resources from the mineral-rich eastern zone of DRC.
As M23 rebels continue pushing deeper into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after capturing the mineral-rich city of Goma, the city of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, is on the verge of falling under their control.
Media reports show that M23 rebels are threatening to march to DRC capital Kinshasa as they push the government of Felix Tshisekedi on the negotiating table to meet their demands. “We will continue the march of liberation all the way to Kinshasa,” announced rebel leader Corneille Nangaa on Thursday, four days after the group confirmed the fall of Goma, where their fighting with the DRC army left dozens killed and saw surrendering of Congolese soldiers and foreign mercenaries.
According to media reports on the ground, M23 rebels were reportedly at Kavumu, about 40km north of Bukavu. Kavumu is a strategic military airport north of Bukavu, according to local sources quoted by AFP news agency.
A UN spokesperson warned on Thursday that the organisation was concerned by “credible reports” that the M23 was “moving rapidly” towards Bukavu, which has a population of two million.
UN experts claim the M23 rebels – one of over 100 militias seeking control in DRC’s east – is receiving support from about 4,000 soldiers from Rwanda. According to authorities in Kinshasa, Rwandan soldiers are currently pillaging valuable resources from the mineral-rich eastern zone of DRC.
Bruno Lemarquis, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for DR Congo, has issued a strong plea for immediate international support. “I call on the international community to step up its support in the face of a worsening humanitarian crisis,” he stated.
However, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has rejected criticism over his backing of the M23 rebels. “Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said he agreed with the U.S. government on the need for a ceasefire in eastern Congo but gave no indication of bowing to calls for Rwandan troops and the M23 rebels they support to withdraw from Goma,” VOA reported.
Rwanda is facing an onslaught of international backlash including continued accusations of repeatedly invading the DRC either directly or through allied militias. Germany has cancelled aid talks with Rwanda and Britain has threatened to withhold over $40 million in annual bilateral assistance to Rwanda, but Kagame remains unraveled.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot arrived in Congo’s capital Kinshasa on Thursday to meet the DRC President Felix Tshisekedi. Barrot’s visit comes on the heels of protesters attacking the French embassy along with several other foreign missions calling for action against Rwanda.
However, Kagame told media this week that his country is ready for “confrontation.” What’s more, he has also reacted furiously to calls for restraint from the West saying it is all nothing but “victim-blaming” and accused the West of turning a blind eye to what he described as “Congo’s complicity in the slaughter of Tutsis.”
Taking to X on social media, Kagame appeared to take aim at South Africa; “If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator.”
This was in response to a post by South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa associated the death of 13 of his military personnel in the DRC to the fighting led by the M23 and allegedly the Rwandan army. In his rebuttal, Kagame accused South African forces of siding with militia in Congo who have ties to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and who have, according to him, threatened to take the war to Rwanda itself.
He has also called out the DRC president Félix Tshisekedi for what he says is “failing to deal with the FDLR and talk to the M23,” factors that are, again according to him, exacerbating the conflict.
Congo has rejected this accusation, saying Rwanda’s true motive is “to use its proxy militias to control lucrative mineral mines,” the VOA reports and also notes that U.N. experts have numerous documentations of large quantities of looted Congolese minerals exported via Rwanda.
Previously, Rwanda’s President Kagame repeatedly and out rightly, denied any involvement in supporting the M23 rebels since the conflict begun, yet reports maintain that the M23 rebels are well equipped, well-armed and well trained.
“However, this response has noticeably shifted as accusations continue to grow with overwhelming evidence showing Rwanda’s support for the rebel group, “points out Richard Moncrief, the International Crisis Group’s Project Director for the Great Lakes.
“The tone has changed to justification for defensive measures,” Moncrief expounded to the BBC explaining that; “it has become harder to deny Rwanda’s support for M23.”
Lashing back, Rwanda’s foreign ministry noted; “This fighting close to the Rwandan border continues to present a serious threat to Rwanda’s security and territorial integrity, and necessitates Rwanda’s sustained defensive posture.”
The statement said, Rwanda is concerned over the ongoing “misguided and/or manipulative” statements that lack context about the conflict.
Meanwhile, VOA has reported that the M23 rebels are settling in the overrun city of Goma which is close to the border with Rwanda, and that the border has in fact re-opened under M23 control. It is also reported that the Congolese army soldiers that surrendered in Goma only did so by crossing over the border into Rwanda.
Also Read: The war in Goma: Is Rwanda attacking DRC to seize mineral-rich city?
Is Rwanda in fact backing up M23 rebels?
According to the UN, the answer is a big ‘YES.’ The VOA reported this week that UN experts maintain that the Rwandan army is in “de facto control of M23 operations.” Not mincing his words, UN peacekeeping Chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said; “”There is no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23…only it is difficult to tell the exact numbers on the ground in Goma.”
The UN says, M23 recruits are trained under Rwandan supervision and are supported by high-tech Rwandan weaponry.
Objecting this fact, DRC protesters are burning portraits of Rwanda’s president Kageme and tearing up Rwandan flags accusing the country of backing up the M23 rebels.
Goma, which lies at the foot of a volcano near Lake Kivu, sits on the border with Rwanda. It is the capital of mineral-rich North Kivu province – and is an important trading and humanitarian hub and the base for the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission.
Further intel suggests that the targeting of Goma is a political statement because “…the M23 does not need the city (Goma) strategically, as it already controls many more lucrative areas.”
“It is President Kagame’s way of exerting power over who is in charge of North Kivu,” suggests Richard Moncrief, International Crisis Group’s Project Director for the Great Lakes.
It looks like a form of revenge, the expert goes on to suggest, pointing out that; “the M23’s origins are tied to these tensions – it is the latest incarnation of a rebel group that says it is fighting for the interests of the minority Tutsi community in eastern DR Congo.”
Also; “The discovery of this kind of high-level collaboration, experts agree, would have been like a red flag to a bull for Rwanda.”
“Rwanda accused the military governor of North Kivu of collaborating with the FDLR,” Moncrief told media. FDLR are associated with the Rwandan genocide and so the aggrievement of Rwanda with the group and the said North Kivu governor who was in fact, by no coincidence, killed in the fighting last week.
The M23 rebel uprising begun more than a decade ago but was later ended with a peace deal, its fighters were disarmed and moved into camps, mainly in Uganda.
The uprising started again about three years ago, with the fighters leaving the camps saying the deal was not honoured and they started the ongoing seizing of territories.
So, just how sophisticated are the operations of a group of fighters who have been idle in camps for more than half a decade?
“According to the UN group of experts, they get five months of training at the M23’s main base in Tchanzu, hilly terrain not far from Rwanda’s border, that incorporates courses on theory and ideology and then practical elements including war tactics, engagement rules and bush tactics,” Reuters reports.
The report states; “Rwandan officers are often at the camp, where recruits, including children, some joining up on a voluntary basis, others forced to do so in a systematic operation where local chiefs had to provide conscripts.” UN experts say the M23 military chief, Sultani Makenga actually fought for Kagame in the early 1990s in Rwanda.