By Christina Malkia, KINSHASA DR
Congo
Fighting intensified around a town in eastern DR Congo Thursday as a rebel group seeking to expand the territory it controls increased pressure on government troops defending it, forcing hundreds of civilians to flee their homes.
By evening it was unclear who
controlled Kitchanga in North Kivu province. Videos on social media appeared to
show fighters in the M23 group celebrating and claiming they’d captured the
town. It was impossible to independently verify their authenticity.
Congo for months has accused
neighboring Rwanda of supporting the M23 group — whose origins lie in the
region’s ethnic fighting — and powerful voices in the West have openly agreed.
Rwanda denies backing the group, which is one of dozens operating in
mineral-rich eastern Congo.
At a Nov. 23 summit in Angola,
which included Congo’s president and Rwanda’s foreign minister, regional
leaders called for a cease-fire in eastern Congo to be followed by a withdrawal
of rebels from major towns under M23 control.
The group said it would leave
some of the occupied territories before Jan. 15, but some areas remain under
its control and it’s seeking to capture others from government forces. M23 has
been accused by the United Nations and rights groups of atrocities against
civilians.
Kitchanga is a key town as it
sits on the last open route between North Kivu’s main economic hubs of Goma and
Butembo. The others were cut off due to the fighting.
Many of Kitchanga’s inhabitants fled Thursday’s violence.
“We have just been through the
war in Kitchanga, we saw M23 killing people, we were afraid, that’s why we fled
so we wouldn’t die too,” said Angelique Mukeshimana. The mother of four went to
a makeshift displacement site on the outskirts of Goma, some 150 kilometers (93
miles) away leaving all her belongings behind.
The fighting comes days before
Pope Francis is due in Congo’s capital Kinshasa for a three-day visit. The trip
was originally supposed to include a stop in the east, however the Vatican
scrapped that amid the rising violence.
M23′s political spokesman,
Lawrence Kanyuka, in a statement Thursday accused government troops of
attacking civilians in Kitchanga and elsewehere, and said the rebel group was
“obliged to intervene and stop another genocide.”
A spokesperson for a United
Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo said more than 500 civilians have taken
refuge in and around the U.N. peacekeeping base in Kitchanga, where they’ve
been given tents, food, water and first aid.
“The M23 must cease all hostilities
and withdraw from the occupied areas,” Ndeye Khady Lo said.
Analysts say the rebel group’s
drive to expand has devastating consequences for civilians.
“If reports that the group has
taken control of Kitchanga ... are true, this is yet another indication of the
group’s ongoing territorial ambitions and apparent unwillingness to withdraw,”
said Daniel Levine-Spound, a researcher at the Center for Civilians in
Conflict.
“The group’s continued
westward expansion also raises meaningful fears that M23 could seek to fully
encircle Goma. Sustained international pressure, including on M23’s backers,
will be critical in halting the group’s advance,” he said.
Largely comprised of Congolese
ethnic Tutsis, M23 rose to prominence 10 years ago when it seized Goma on the
border with Rwanda. It’s part of long line of rebel groups linked with Rwanda
since the 1990s when the country sought out ethnic Hutu militias, who had fled
to Congo after killing Rwandan Tutsis during the genocide.
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