Rwanda supported rebels have “occupied” a second big city in the mineral-rich Eastern Congo, said the government of Congo on Sunday, while M23 rebels positioned themselves in the office of the governor in Bukavu and promised to clean up after it ” old regime “.
Associated Press Journalists witnessed dozens of residents who encouraged the rebels after they had entered Bukavu after a day -long Mars from Goma, a city of 2 million people they seized last month.
The rebels saw little resistance from government forces against the unprecedented expansion of their reach after their years of fighting. The Congo government promised to restore order in Bukavu, a city of 1.3 million people, but there was no sign of soldiers. Many were seen on Saturday on Saturday next to thousands of burgers.
The M23 are the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups that compete for control over the billions of dollars from Eastern Congo in mineral wealth that is crucial for a large part of the world’s technology. The rebels are supported by around 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to the United Nations Experts.
The fighting has moved more than 6 million people in the region, creating the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis.
Rebels promise to ‘clean up’ the disorder
Bernard Maheshe Byamungu, one of the M23 leaders punished by the UN Security Council for violations of the rights, stood in front of the office of the South Kivu government in Bukavu and told residents that they have lived in a “jungle”.
“We are going to clean up the condition that remains of the old regime,” said Byamungu, while some in the small crowd young men tune the rebels to “go all the way to Kinshasa,” Congo’s capital, almost 1000 miles away.
The M23 did not announce any seizure of Bukavu, in contrast to the announcement in taking Goma, who had brought rapid international conviction. Spokespersons for the M23 did not respond to questions on Sunday.
Congo’s Communications Ministry in a statement on social media recognized for the first time that Bukavu was “occupied” and said that the national government “did everything possible to restore order and territorial integrity” in the region.
A resident of Bukavu, Blaise Byamungu, said that the rebels marched into the city that was “abandoned by all authorities and without loyalistic power.”
“Wait the government for them to take over other cities to take action? It is cowardice,” Byamungu added.
M23 rebels come to the second largest city in East Congo, Bukavu, and take control of the South Kivu Province Administrative Office, Sunday. (AP Photo/January Barhahiga)
Fear of regional escalation
Unlike in 2012, when the M23 Goma took briefly and withdrew after international pressure, analysts said that the rebels are looking at political power this time.
The fighting in Congo Has connections with a decades of ethnic conflict. The M23 says it defends ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed that the Tutsis are being prosecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide and founded the democratic forces for the liberation of Rwanda Militia Group.
Rwanda says that the military group is “fully integrated” in the Congolese army, which denies it.
But the new face of the M23 in the regional nangaa-is not tutsi, so that the group “gets a new, more diverse, Congolese face, as M23 is always seen as an armed group that defends Tutsi minorities” supported by Rwanda ” , according to Christian Moleka, a political scientist at the Congolese think tank Dypol.
Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi, whose government claimed on Saturday that Bukavu remained under control, has warned of the risk of a regional expansion of the conflict.
The troops of Congo were supported in Goma by troops from South Africa and in Bukavu by troops from Burundi. But the president of Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye, seemed to suggest on social media that his country would not take revenge in the fighting.
The conflict was high on the agenda of the African Union summit in Ethiopia during the weekend, whereby the UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that it was spiral-shaped in a regional sea of ​​fire.
Nevertheless, African leaders and the international community have been cautious to take decisive action against M23 or Rwanda, who has one of the most powerful soldiers in Africa. Most continue to ask for a cease -the fire and a dialogue between Congo and the rebels.
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that includes the M23, has said that it is committed to “defending” the people of Bukavu.
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“We call on the population to keep control of their city and not to admit panic,” said spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka in the Alliance in a statement on Saturday.
