An insurrection led by M23 rebels in eastern Congo increased and reached the city of Goma, aggravating a humanitarian crisis in a region that underwent two devastating wars between 1996 and 2003.
A rebellious alliance led by the militia led by the ethnic Tuts said that it had seized the city by the lake of more than two million people, a major hub for displaced people and aid groups lying at the border with Rwanda.
The deep striker of heavy artillery fire and rat-aa-tat of gunshots could be heard in a video of Goma airport, published in the last hours on social networks and verified by Reuters, who showed unidentified armed men running on the airport field.
About the size of Western Europe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, as being officially known, houses 100 million people and the UN expressed its concern that the M23 offensive risks are unleashed in a broader regional war.
Here’s what you need to know:
Who are the rebels?
The M23 takes its name from an agreement of March 23, 2009, signed by the Congolese government and a previous rebellious group led by Tuts, the National Congress for the Defense of the People. The M23 consists of the two fighters of this original group as well as defections of the Congolese army and police.
The group did not wait long to accuse the government of the Congo of not being up to the peace agreement by fully integrating the Congolese Tutsis into its army and its administration. In 2012, he had taken control of Goma, withdrawing after more negotiations with the government.
He launched his current rebellion in 2022 and the fighting broke out last year, causing territorial gains for M23. The rebels claimed control of Masisi, about 80 kilometers north of Goma in early January.
The rebel gains interrupted the withdrawal scheduled for the UN peacekeeping force last month, which first put boots on the country in the country in 2000.
In 2023, Congo President Felix Tshisekedi called for the departure of peacekeepers. Their presence had become increasingly unpopular and even sparked deadly manifestations against a perception among certain residents of the East that they have not sufficiently protected civilians from the violence of the militia.
The United Nations mission, which deploys around 11,000 peacekeepers and 1,750 civilians in the Congo, was extended until December this year.
The M23 has alliances with certain political groups, including one led by Corneille Nangaa, a former official of the Congo electoral commission, especially during an electoral victory criticized for Tshisekedi which was nevertheless Announced by the US State Department In the first presidential administration of Donald Trump. Nangaa himself was sanctioned by the United States for the embezzlement of funds for the Washington elections.
Although it is difficult to assess the extent of the support for the Nangaa Fleue Congo alliance (AFC), which considers the M23 rebels as their military wing, UN experts said in December that a number Crescent of armed factions had punctuated there.
“Our goal is neither Goma nor Bukavu but Kinshasa (the capital), the source of all problems,” he told Reuters in an interview. “In Congo, we have a weak state or a non-state. Where all the armed groups have emerged, it is because there is no state. We want to recreate the state.”
The role of Rwanda
Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, has been the de facto chief of Rwanda since after the 1994 genocide in this country, in which nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Although his regime was accused of human rights violations at the national level and to muzzle opposition in elections which are neither free nor equitable, Western countries have often tolerated the autocrat.
In addition to consolidating power at home, Rwanda under Kagama has a long history of military intervention in the Congo. Rwanda and Uganda invaded in 1996 and 1998, saying that they defended themselves against local militia groups.
The Congo government, United Nations officials and Western powers, including the United States, accused the neighbor of the Congo, Rwanda, of having fueled the conflict by deploying thousands of its own troops and heavy weapons on Congolese soil supported by M23.
A report by a group of United Nations experts in 2022 explained that Rwandan troops were fighting alongside the M23 rebels.
How the rebels earn money
On Sunday, several members of the United Nations Security Council, at an emergency meeting on the spiral situation, echoes the feeling of the representative of Russia on the body, Nébenzia nasty.
“We are convinced that the struggle to access strategically important Congolese minerals is one of the reasons for the continuation of the crisis that we are witnessing now,” said Nebenzia.
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The abundant mineral supplies of Congo have long been coveted by Chinese and Western companies as well as by armed groups. The Central African nation contains several minerals of the earth which are part of the supply chains for electric vehicles, smartphones and computers.
The M23 has controlled the Coltane region of Rubaya for over a year. This allowed them to generate US $ 800,000 per month through a production tax, according to the UN.
The group has spread to new territories in recent weeks when there is a range to generate more mining income, according to analysts. They include Numbi, an oriental mining area rich in gold, tourmaline and tin, tantalum and tungsten – so -called 3T minerals used in computers and mobile phones.
Technology manufacturers are examined to ensure that the metals used in their products do not come from conflict areas as is the Congo. Apple denied allegations in the past that he has caused cobalt and other conflict minerals and in December would have told suppliers To stop acquiring tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from Congo and Rwanda.
Men, women and children have often worked in toxic conditions in Congo mines, and according to UN experts, the rebels have doubled the wages of the excavations to convince them to continue working in Rubaya.
Control of the M23 transport routes from Rubaya to Rwanda led Rubaya minerals to mix with Rwandan production, contaminating a Coltan supply chain, the group of experts from the United Nations Security Council said in the report published earlier this month.
