Insurgent forces backed by Rwanda have captured the city of Masisi within the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in keeping with varied reviews.
That is the second city seized by the M23 group in as many days within the mineral-rich North Kivu province.
The group has taken management of huge swathes of japanese DR Congo since 2021, forcing lots of of 1000’s of individuals to flee their houses.
Angola has been making an attempt to mediate talks between President Félix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame. However these broke down final month.
“It’s with dismay that we be taught of the seize of Masisi centre by the M23,” Alexis Bahunga, a member of North Kivu provincial meeting, informed the AFP information company.
He mentioned this “plunges the territory right into a severe humanitarian disaster” and urged the federal government to strengthen the capability of the military within the area.
One resident informed AFP that the M23 had held a gathering of the city’s inhabitants, saying that they had “come to liberate the nation”.
The Congolese authorities haven’t but commented on the lack of the city.
Masisi, which has a inhabitants of about 40,000, is the capital of the territory of the identical title.
It’s about 80km (50 miles) north of the North Kivu provincial capital Goma, which the M23 briefly occupied in 2012.
On Friday, the M23 captured the close by city of Katale.
Final yr, there have been fears that the M23 would as soon as once more march on Goma, a metropolis of about two million folks.
Nevertheless, there was then a lull in preventing till early December when preventing resumed.
In July, Rwanda didn’t deny a UN report saying it had about 4,000 troopers preventing alongside the M23 in DR Congo.
It accused the Congolese authorities of not doing sufficient to deal with many years of battle within the east of the nation. Rwanda has beforehand mentioned the authorities in DR Congo have been working with a few of these answerable for the 1994 Rwandan genocide in opposition to ethnic Tutsis and average Hutus.
The M23, fashioned as an offshoot of one other insurgent group, started working in 2012 ostensibly to guard the Tutsi inhabitants within the east of DR Congo which had lengthy complained of persecution and discrimination.
Nevertheless, Rwanda’s critics accuse it of utilizing the M23 to loot japanese DR Congo’s minerals similar to gold, cobalt and tantalum, that are used to make cell phones and batteries for electrical vehicles.
Final month, DR Congo mentioned it was suing Apple over the usage of such “blood minerals”, prompting the tech big to say it had stopped getting provides from each international locations.
Discover out extra in regards to the battle in DR Congo:
[Getty Images/BBC]
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