A recent offensive by the M23, a former Tutsi rebellion which took up arms again at the end of 2021, saw the group advance towards Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu of more than a million inhabitants, and is fueling tensions between the DRC and Rwanda.
“The next session of the peace dialogue on the situation in eastern DRC is scheduled to start on November 21 in Nairobi”, capital of Kenya, the Community of East African States (EAC) announced on Sunday. in a statement posted on Twitter. Neither the participants nor the duration of the discussions were specified.
The new violence by the M23 has caused renewed tension between the DRC and Rwanda, accused by Kinshasa since the beginning of the year of active support for this rebellion. Kigali denied.
This announcement of talks comes as new fighting pitted the Congolese army against the M23 on Sunday about twenty kilometers north of Goma.
“We wake up in the fighting this (Sunday) morning. Our forces are clashing with the M23 in Mwaro. But we managed to repel the enemy on the Gikeri side,” an army officer told AFP. requested anonymity.
“Fighting is currently taking place in Mwaro where the enemy attacked us,” confirmed a security source.
In a statement dated Saturday, the rebel group accused the Congolese army of carrying out “barbaric bombings” in densely populated areas, killing 15 civilians, including two children. AFP could not confirm this report from an independent source.
– Diplomatic initiatives –
Diplomatic initiatives are multiplying in an attempt to resolve the conflict. Angolan President João Lourenço, head of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (CIRGL), met his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on Friday, then the next day the Congolese Head of State Félix Tshisekedi.
The EAC’s eastern DRC peace facilitator, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, and Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye arrived in Kinshasa on Sunday for a two-day visit.
The first Kenyan soldiers – around a hundred – meanwhile arrived in Goma on Saturday as part of an East African regional force. The Kenyan parliament on Wednesday approved the dispatch of 900 soldiers to eastern DRC, which has been plagued by attacks by armed groups for nearly three decades.
On this occasion, Kenyan Lieutenant-Colonel Dennis Obiero told reporters that their mission was to “carry out offensive operations” alongside Congolese forces and help disarm militias.
A confidential UN report, consulted in August by AFP, points to Rwanda’s involvement with the M23. American leaders have also mentioned aid from the Rwandan army to the M23.
Kigali denies and accuses in return the DRC – which also denies – of collusion with the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), a movement of Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom are involved in the genocide of the Tutsi in 1994 in Rwanda.
According to the UN, the recent fighting has caused the displacement of at least 188,000 people.
Exactly 10 years ago, in November-December 2012, the M23 rebels occupied Goma for ten days, before being defeated the following year by the Congolese army and peacekeepers.
After years of inactivity, they took up arms again at the end of 2021, claiming that the DRC had not kept its promise to integrate them into the army. In recent weeks, the M23 has won a string of victories and dramatically increased the territory it controls.
