Fighting flares in DR Congo forcing 50,000 to flee | Monitor

Fighting flares in DR Congo, forcing 50,000 to flee

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2387221/world

October 08, 2023

GOMA, DR Congo: Rival armed groups have clashed in DR Congo’s east killing five civilians and forcing more than 50,000 to flee, the United Nations said Saturday, after a six-month lull in fighting.

Clashes have erupted between local armed groups and the M23 rebel movement in North Kivu province, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“The resurgence of violent clashes since October 1 raises concern about a fresh deterioration in the humanitarian situation,” OCHA said.
About 51,000 people had been “forced to flee their homes” in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The main armed groups operating in the North Kivu had met in the provincial capital Goma at the end of September and declared themselves ready to lay down arms.
Within days coordinated attacks were launched on villages in Masisi and Rutshuru territory.
Video footage posted on social media, shows militiamen saying they are “volunteers to defend the nation” before filming themselves firing at homes and setting them ablaze.
The fighting has led to traffic being halted on one of the province’s main roads.
The head of a local defense group known as “General” Guidon Shimiray, who faces UN Security Council sanctions and is wanted by the Congo government, on Friday paraded with his men in the town of Kitshanga,50 kilometers (30 miles) from Goma. The M23 rebel group chased the army out of the town last January

A Kitshanga resident on Saturday told AFP, “In the morning shots rang out... local self-defense groups fled.
“Some stole goods from people,” as they went, before M23 rebels took control of the area, he added, asking not to be named.
Other local people contacted by telephone said they had left for the north for their own safety.
A nurse told AFP hundreds had sought refuge in a health center, including five with bullet wounds.
M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda, have captured swathes of North Kivu displacing more than a million people since re-emerging to launch an offensive in late 2021.
Several thousand soldiers from East Africa have been deployed in combat zones since the start of the year, in theory to patrol a buffer zone between the armed groups.
DRC’s armed forces (FARDC) this week announced they were not involved in the resumption of fighting.
Dozens of armed groups are active in eastern DRC, a legacy of regional wars that raged in the 1990s and 2000s.

Édouard Mwangachuchu has been sentenced to death

Congolese MP ordered to pay $100m in 8 days, sentenced to death over M23 rebels

https://observer.ug/news/headlines/79417-congolese-mp-ordered-to-pay-100m-in-8-days-sentenced-to-death-over-m23-rebels

October 9, 2023

Written by URN

Édouard Mwangachuchu, MP of Masisi territory, North Kivu Province has been sentenced to death by a Gallison Military court after pleading guilty to backing the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels.
Mwangachuchu, who is also the president of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a political movement, and the director of Bisunzu mining company that deals in Coltan mining in Rubaya, Masisi territory, North Kivu Province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was arrested in March this year.

The court presided over by Gen Robert Kalala which convened on Friday at Ndolo prison ruled that Mwangachuchu was guilty of treason, participation in an insurrectional movement (M23), and illegal possession of weapons and ammunition.

The court also fined him $100 million payable in Congolese francs as damages caused to the Congolese state. The court ordered him to pay the fine within 8 days. A police officer Robert Mushamalirwa, Mwangachuchu’s co-accused on the same charges was however acquitted by the court after he pleaded innocent.

Maître Thomas Gamakolo, Mwangachuchu's lawyer, protested the ruling arguing that it is based on ethnic harassment against Kinyarwanda-speaking people in North Kivu. Mushamalirwa also denounced the conditions of his client's detention, asserting that he was seriously ill and that he was refused access to a cardiologist despite medical evidence of his heart disease.

The ruling against Mwangachuchu comes at a time when there is fresh and intense fighting between the Militia coalition under their umbrella Wazalendo (patriotic) and the M23 rebels intensified in North Kivu province, despite the cease-fire decree by East African Community Heads of States.

On Friday Wazalendo claimed to have conquered 21 villages during three days of nonstop fighting and vowed to continue launching assault at M23 positions until they (M23) retreated to Rwanda. M23 accused Wazalendo of collaborating with Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) soldiers in violation of a cease-fire by starting war.
M23 also accused Wazalendo and FARDC of burning houses belonging to civilians in Nturo Locality Yamitaba Groupement, in Masisi. M23 also accused Burundian troops in Kitchanga town of betraying the East African Community heads of state resolutions by handing over the town and other neighboring areas to Wazalendo and FARDC. Both FARDC and Wazalendo refuted the accusations of burning locals’ houses in Nturo.

Burundian troops also refuted accusations of collaborating with Wazalendo. A lull of gun sounds was heard on all the fronts on Saturday morning. M23 rebels who were in positions in Bishusha had advanced to get closer to Kitshanga, according to a local resident in the area.

The Wazalendo by Saturday were retreating from Kilorirwe towards Kibati due to a lack of ammunition supply. The M23 rebels were by Saturday in Kilolirwe, a source adds.

M23 Fighting flares in DR Congo, forcing 50,000 to flee: Congolese MP ordered to pay $100m in 8 days, sentenced to death over M23 rebels

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