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28 March 2024

UN, Congolese gunships attack mutineers

Published
By AFP

The United Nations and Congolese government on Thursday used gunships to attack mutineers perceived to be threatening the main eastern city of Goma.

The UN and the Congolese army, who claim the M23 rebels are a Rwandan proxy, had deployed tanks around Goma but the mutineers said they had no plan to seize the regional capital and only wanted to negotiate with Kinshasa.

Three helicopters from the UN's mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) and two from Congolese army (FARDC) were seen around the villages of Nkokwe and Bukima, where the rebels are thought to have some positions.

"The FARDC are currently attacking our positions, but they don't know where we are. There's no problem," a colonel from the mutiny told AFP.

The two locations are on the western border of the Virunga national park, some 50 km from Goma.

The M23 mutineers, who defected from the army in April, had launched an offensive in recent days, easily overwhelming the FARDC. Around 600 regular troops and tens of thousands of civilians were forced to seek refuge in Uganda.

"Our mission is not to go to Goma. We are strong but we are also disciplined," M23 spokesman Vianney Kazarama told AFP.

The mutineers had seized a number of towns along the Ugandan border and promptly withdrew from all but Bunagana, a town on the border with Uganda.

"We have pulled out of those towns, our mission is not to control them. What we want is that the Congolese government sit down at the negotiating table," Kazarama said.

M23 -- named after a failed 2009 peace deal signed on March 23 -- is led by Bosco Ntaganda, a man nicknamed the "Terminator" who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

The mutineers are ex-rebels who were integrated into the regular army in 2009 as part of a deal that followed their failed 2008 offensive on Goma, under the command of Tutsi leader Laurent Nkunda.

They defected in April, ostensibly over pay, but experts argue Ntaganda and his men are flexing military muscle to clinch further rights over the area's lucrative mines.

Almost uninterrupted conflict over DR Congo's vast mineral resources -- which include gold, diamonds, coltan, tin, tungsten and many others -- has left at least two million people dead since 1999, according to rights groups.

A diplomat in Kinshasa said an M23 offensive on Goma appeared unlikely.

"Everything in the way that the mutineers have withdrawn from Rutshuru indicates that they don't intend to take big towns like Goma," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

The DR Congo government and a UN panel of sanctions experts have said Rwanda is supplying arms and fighters to M23 rebels. Rwanda has denied involvement.

Ban "expressed grave concern" over reports that the M23 "are receiving external support and are well-trained, armed and equipped," spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

"Stressing the need do everything possible to dissuade the M23 from making further advances and to cease fighting immediately, the secretary general urged Presidents Kagame and Kabila to pursue dialogue in order to defuse tensions and bring an end to the crisis," he said.

The UN's mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, is one of the largest UN peacekeeping operations in the world.

Neighbouring Uganda also warned that fighting between the rebels and DR Congo troops risked destabilising the wider region.

Tens of thousands have fled fighting into Uganda in recent months.

"The crises and conflicts affecting eastern DRC can rapidly destabilise the country and also spread even to the entire region," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Uganda said it had called for a special meeting of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region to discuss the crisis, on the sidelines of an African Union summit beginning Sunday.

Ntaganda is wanted by the ICC for recruiting child soldiers in the Ituri region a decade ago. His co-accused and former boss Thomas Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years in jail on Tuesday.