GOMA, DR Congo
Democratic Republic of Congo has accused Rwanda of backing the M23 rebel group, which the latter denied Thursday as the Congolese army clashed with the militia in the east of the vast country.
Fighting with the rebel group
erupted on several fronts this week in North Kivu, a conflict-torn eastern
province of DRC, which borders Rwanda.
"Suspicions are
crystallising that the M23 has received support from
Rwanda," Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya stated on
Wednesday evening, after a crisis meeting with the prime minister.
Primarily a Congolese Tutsi
group, M23 is one of more than 120 armed groups that roam eastern DRC.
It briefly captured North
Kivu's provincial capital Goma in late 2012, before the army quelled the
rebellion the following year.
But M23 resumed fighting this
year, accusing the Congolese government of failing to respect a 2009 agreement
under which its fighters were to be incorporated into the army.
Foreign Affairs Minister
Christophe Lutundula also accused Rwanda of backing the M23 and said the
militia had attacked Rumangabo army camp, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north
of Goma.
"This is the height of
brazenness, we cannot remain indifferent, we cannot say nothing," he told
delegates at an African Union meeting in Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday.
But Rwanda has denied
involvement. Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said the country has
"no intention of being drawn into an internal matter of the DRC".
Clashes between the army and
M23 continued near the Rumangabo camp on Thursday, local sources said.
In Goma, 50-year-old Kakule
Kapitula told AFP he had come to the city because of insecurity elsewhere in
the province.
"I am afraid because if
they arrive, I will have nowhere to run," he said, referring to the
rebels.
DRC and Rwanda have had a
strained relationship since the mass arrival in the republic of Rwandan Hutus
accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Kinshasa has regularly accused
Rwanda of carrying out incursions into its territory and of backing armed
groups there.
Relations had begun to thaw
after DRC President Felix Tshisekedi took office in 2019, but the recent
resurgence of M23 violence has reignited tensions.
Tensions have also risen in
Goma, an ethnic melting pot with a population of about one million, on fears of
escalating violence.
General Francois-Xavier Aba
van Ang, a high-ranking police officer in North Kivu, on Wednesday told city
residents to prepare to defend themselves with machetes, according to a video
posted on social media.
Muyaya criticised the remarks
as "dangerous," however.
Resorting to "machetes,
hate speech, stigmatisation is extremely dangerous and should be banned,"
he tweeted on Thursday.
M23 also stated that it was
concerned by calls to violence.
"MONUSCO and the DRC
government should stop this very dangerous slippage to avoid the
genocide," it stated Thursday, using an acronym to refer to the UN
peacekeeping mission in the DRC.
The army launched an offensive
against M23 last week, after the militia apparently attacked soldiers as well
as UN peacekeepers.
On Monday, Rwanda urged an
investigation into an alleged rocket attack on its territory by Congolese armed
forces.
Fighting between M23 and DRC's
army erupted again on Tuesday north of Goma, and by Wednesday had spread to
other areas of North Kivu, including the Rumangabo camp.
DRC on Wednesday announced it
had also requested an investigation through a regional body that monitors
security incidents in Africa's volatile Great Lakes region.
It did not mention Rwanda by
name, but said in a statement that shells had been fired into its territory
"from the east to the west.” - AFP
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