Fighting in eastern DR Congo between a government-led coalition and the M23 rebels continued on Monday, February 12, after a week that saw the rebels get even more closer to the city of Goma, according to reports.
On Monday, the rebels said the government coalition comprising Congolese armed forces (FARDC), several militia groups including the Rwandan genocidal group, FDLR, Burundian and Southern African troops, carried out attacks on Kibumba and Sake towns located about 20 and 25 kilometers north and northwest of Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, respectively.
The M23 once took control of Kibumba in 2023, before withdrawing from the town as part of a negotiated plan that was supposed to give way for negotiations.
M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka on Monday accused the government coalition of carrying out "widespread attacks against civilian populations” in the areas of Kimoka, Malehe, Madimba, Macofee, Mitumbaro, Kihira and Kirotshe.
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Regional and international calls for peace talks have failed, with the Congolese government saying it would not negotiate with the rebel group. The Congolese government calls M23 a terrorist movement.
A United States-brokered ceasefire in December failed to hold. Regional peace initiatives like the EAC-led Nairobi Process and the Luanda Processes have been in a stalemate for months, as the fighting enters its third year.
Guilty silence of the international community
Since early February, fighting in Sake has forced thousands of residents to flee to Goma and raised fears that the M23 could march on the provincial capital, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The rebels said they had no intention of taking control of Goma, but that artillery and air attacks by the government coalition would be "dealt with at their source.”
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"We condemn the guilty silence of the international community in the face of the continued targeted massacres of civilians and the ongoing ethnic cleansing,” Kanyuka said, adding that the coalition forces included members of the FDLR, a militia whose founders masterminded the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The UN-sanctioned FDLR militia is also accused of spreading violence and genocide ideology targeting Congolese Tutsi communities in the east of the country.
Eastern DR Congo has been volatile for nearly 30 years.
The provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu and Ituri are home to more than 130 armed groups that are accused of atrocities and human rights violations.
Multiple regional and international interventions have failed to end decades of insecurity.