DRC: combating continues with the M23 regardless of a ceasefire

Combating continues on Tuesday within the jap Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), regardless of the announcement on March 3 in Luanda of a brand new ceasefire accepted by the M23 revolt, we discovered. from native sources.

Combating had resumed on Monday morning between the military and the M23 on the northern and southern fronts within the province of North Kivu, leaving a number of civilians useless and injured in line with hospital and humanitarian sources.

On Tuesday morning, because the ceasefire was scheduled for 10:00 GMT, clashes continued and each side accused one another of launching assaults on their positions.

“Karuba (about 30 km west of the provincial capital Goma) has simply fallen into insurgent arms,” mentioned a safety supply. “We attacked them final night time however this morning they launched a counter-attack and right now the combating continues,” added the identical supply.

“The M23 terrorists and their sponsors from the Rwanda Protection Drive (the Rwandan military) launched an assault which focused the Burundian contingent lately deployed as a part of the regional pressure of the East African Group (EAC)”, declared Monday night Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike, spokesman for the military in North Kivu.

He added that this “mortar” assault had additionally focused a camp for displaced individuals and town of Mubambiro, inflicting “monumental injury”, 20 km west of Goma.

For his half, Willy Ngoma, a spokesman for the M23, informed AFP on Tuesday that the Congolese military on Monday attacked “all (its) positions concurrently” and that the revolt was nonetheless underneath assault on Tuesday morning. The M23 reacts “in self-defence”, he mentioned.

The newly introduced ceasefire comes after the failure of all earlier regional initiatives launched to finish the advance of the M23 in current months in North Kivu.

On March 3 in Luanda, the Angolan presidency, designated by the African Union as a mediator on this disaster, introduced a brand new timetable for the cessation of hostilities, beginning this Tuesday at midday with the cessation of combating “in all the jap area of the DRC. “.

The principally Tutsi M23 revolt, dormant for nearly a decade, took up arms once more on the finish of 2021. Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of supporting it, which has been corroborated by UN consultants, though Kigali denies it. defend.