A Congolese army tank heads towards the front line near Kibumba in the area surrounding the North Kivu city of Goma during clashes between the Congolese army and M23 rebels, May 25, 2022. PHOTO | COURTESY
By AFP
Agence France-Presse is
an international news
Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris, France.
Summary
·
After
several days of relative calm, fighting erupted on Monday in the flashpoint
province of North Kivu, leaving several civilians dead and injured, hospital
sources and aid workers said
Goma. M23 rebels clashed with soldiers on two fronts in eastern
DR Congo on Tuesday, officials said, despite a regional ceasefire deal due to
take effect the same day.
After several days of relative calm,
fighting erupted on Monday in the flashpoint province of North Kivu, leaving
several civilians dead and injured, hospital sources and aid workers said.
The fighting continued on Tuesday,
with the rebels seizing new villages, despite a ceasefire brokered by Angola
last week that was due to start at noon (1000 GMT).
The M23 rebels have captured swathes
of territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since re-emerging from
dormancy in late 2021, claiming the government had ignored a pledge to
integrate them into the army.
The Tutsi-led group is hemming in
the lakeside trade hub of Goma, taking territory to the north of the city and
advancing in the west as well.
A security source, who declined to
be named, said on Tuesday morning that Karuba, about 30 kilometres (18 miles)
west of Goma, "has just fallen into rebel hands".
"We attacked them in the night
but this morning they launched a counter-attack, and, at the moment, the
fighting is continuing," the source added.
Witnesses said fighting continued to
the north too, where rebels remained on the offensive.
The renewed fighting coincided with
an urgent appeal by UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday for the M23 rebels to
honour the ceasefire and move towards fully withdrawing from the
conflict-ridden country.
'Huge damage'
Despite the clashes, the M23 rebels
in a statement on Tuesday announced what they called "an effective
ceasefire" at midday "to open the way for direct dialogue with the
Kinshasa government".
Both sides accuse the other of
triggering the fresh round of clashes.
M23 spokesman Willy Ngoma told AFP
on Tuesday that the group was defending itself after the army attacked all its
positions simultaneously.
Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike,
the army's spokesman in North Kivu, condemned "an umpteenth violation not
only of the ceasefire but also of international humanitarian law by the Rwandan
army under the guise of the M23".
He also accused them of firing on
the area of Sake, 20 kilometres west of Goma, directing the shots at a base of
the UN mission in the country, MONUSCO, and a recently deployed Burundian
contingent of an East African regional military force.
He said the rebel attack also
targeted a camp for displaced people and the area of Mubambiro, also 20
kilometres west of Goma, causing "huge damage".
The DRC accuses Rwanda of backing
the rebels, who have displaced over half a million people in their long
campaign.
Independent UN experts, the United
States, as well as several other western states, agree with the assessment,
although Rwanda strongly denies it.
Bombing
The fighting in Karuba since Monday
has killed six and left at least 10 injured, Folo Ombeni, deputy head of a
local civil society group, said.
Another civil society
representative, Leopold Muisha from the Kamuronza district on the western
outskirts of Goma, said rebels had shelled civilians.
"Seven bombs were fired on
Monday in the late afternoon, killing two civilians, including a 12-year-old
child, and injuring six others," he said in a statement.
The International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) also reported a child had been killed and 12 people injured in
the bombardment.
On March 3, the Angolan presidency
-- which is mediating the conflict -- announced a ceasefire for eastern DRC due
to take effect at noon on Tuesday.
During a visit to DR Congo last
week, French President Emmanuel Macron met DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and
his Angolan and Rwandan counterparts Joao Lourenco and Paul Kagame, saying all
sides would support a ceasefire starting Tuesday.
The seven-nation East African
Community (EAC) has created a military force to stabilise eastern Congo, with
the first troops arriving in Goma in November.
The announcement followed several
other failed regional peace initiatives.
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