Junior Kannah/Agence France-Presse Getty Images. WHAT IS DRIVING THE VIOLENCE IN EASTERN CONGO. What is the latest conflict in the DR Congo about? - Al Jazeera More than 120 militia groups are wreaking terror in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which now accuses neighboring Rwanda of. "We signed an agreement with President Tshisekedi and Congo government," Ngoma said, referring to the 2013 pact, "and we are ready to talk with the government. The rebels called me and told me I am an M23 supporter. This situation has been further aggravated by inflation, epidemics and natural disasters, including last month's floods in Kahele territory in South Kivu, which killed more than 470 people and left thousands missing. What interests does Kenya have in DR Congo? The fighting at the beginning of the week . Two other medical workers in North Kivu said that medical centers had been overwhelmed with trauma victims. UN investigators alsosaidthat Ugandan army commanders had sent troops and weapons to reinforce some M23 operations and assisted the group with recruiting. www.fpri.org Copyright 20002023. The group secured significant territory along the Rwandan and Ugandan borders. After they arrived, the M23 raped women, forced people to work for them, and beat people up, [W]e had to work in our fields and give them our crops., Three former residents described the execution of a man in November. Two people in Karuba confirmed the deaths. In 1996, Rwanda invaded Congo, and backed the rebellion that eventually led to the taking of Kinshasa, the capital. Ugandan officials have accused Rwanda of using M23 to thwart its efforts against ADF, the Africa Center report noted, adding that the U.N. also has implicated Uganda with aiding M23. U.N. investigators a decade earlier had claimed credible evidence of Rwandan involvement. FILE - Internally displaced people from the Kibumba area near the North Kivu city of Goma, arrive on May 25, 2022 at the Kunyaruchinya school trying to shelter from the ongoing clashes between the Congolese Army and the M23 rebels. Speaking for the M23 rebels, Major Willy Ngoma told VOA's Swahili Service that his group did not recognize the pact. Exacerbating this need for assistance, the UN has had to suspend air deliveries of aid to certain eastern provinces in the face of attacks on its convoys. How is the East African force different to the UN mission? Congo Fashion Show Hopes to Inspire Peace, Creativity in Region As of spring 2023, indications have surfaced that M23 is drawing back some of its forces. In late November, Uganda and the DRC began a joint military operation in North Kivu to hunt down the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group of Ugandan rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group and designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. An error occurred while subscribing your email address. And in June 2021, DRCs Tshisekedi and Ugandas Museveni presided over groundbreaking of the first of three roads linking the countries. Stearns, of the Congo Research Group, said the joint Ugandan-DRC military operation created geopolitical ripple effects in the region, with Rwanda essentially complaining that Ugandas intervention encroaches on its sphere of interest in eastern Congo. In some of the incidents, it is not clear which military force was responsible for the attack. Commanders may be criminally responsible for war crimes by their forces if they knew or should have known about such crimes and failed to prevent them or punish those responsible. The eastern provinces of Zaire saw the most violence before and during the war due to ethnic tensions and violence against the Banyamulenge people (immigrants of Rwandan Tutsi descent). When they searched him and found 100,000 Congolese Francs (US$45), they beat him up. Violence in the DRC may eventually spill over into Burundi, Rwanda, and Ugandacountries with longstanding ties to the United States. She said the humanitarian response falls far short of the unprecedented level of need, welcoming the start of a system-wide scale-up response in eastern DRC for an initial period of three months. One of the most prominent rebel groups to emerge in the early 2000s was known as theMarch 23 Movement(M23), made up primarily of ethnic Tutsis. Due to stigma and underreporting by survivors, the full number of incidents of sexual violence by armed groups is most likely much higher. After two weeks, they started raping women. FILE - Displaced people who fled clashes between the Congolese army and M23 rebels try to return to their homes in Kibumba, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 1, 2022. Why Is There So Much Turmoil in Eastern Congo? Human Rights Watch accuses M23 of "summarily" killing at least 29 civilians from mid-June through July 25. 01/17/2023. Nov. 6, 2022, at 5:56 a.m. Congo and Rwanda Hold Talks to Resolve Conflict in Eastern Congo. Insecurity in eastern DRC continued to fuel a long-standing humanitarian crisis often ignored by the international community, said Ms. Pobee. No date has been set for the forces deployment. An estimated 6.3 million people have been displaced within the country and since March 2022, more than 2.8 million have fled their homes in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces due to insecurity. Had the genocide not happened, probably we would not have faced all of these issues.. M23, short for the March 23 Movement, takes its name from a failed 2009 peace deal between the Congolese government and a now-defunct rebel group that had split off from the Congolese army and seized control of North Kivu's provincial capital, Goma, in 2012. However, the election results have since been questioned. At the same time, the Mission provided direct physical protection for civilians. The diplomatic roadmap called for ceasing hostilities and for M23s immediate withdrawal. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame came to power at the head of a rebel Tutsi army fighting Hutu extremists who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. There is no one working there., January 17, 2023: 2023 Planet Labs PBC May 13, 2023: 2023 Planet Labs PBC. Fueling the insecurity: a complicated brew of geopolitics, ethnic and national rivalries and competition for control of eastern DRCs abundant natural resources. The M23 seems undeterred. Despite these agreements, the establishment of truth and reconciliation commissions, and the presence of a renewed UN peacekeeping force, unrest and clashes persisted in eastern DRC. Eastern DR Congo is endowed with extraordinary natural wealth. The country has faced political repression and instability since it achieved independence in 1960. Conflict in eastern Congo has gone on for decades as myriad armed groups fight for control of valuable mineral resources. They raped all of us. I know they were FDLR because they are based in the Karambi forest near Rugari, and we know them. As young people continue to flee fighting between Congolese armed forces and . Fashion designers from several parts of Africa have come together for a show in eastern Congo, hoping to inspire peace and creativity in a region long affected by conflict. After the M23 briefly captured Goma, UN-backed government troops forced them back into Rwanda and Uganda in 2013. Since 1998, violent conflict and poverty in the DRC have killed over 5 million men, women, and childrenmore than any war since World War II. Bintou Keita, who heads the UN Stabilization Mission in the . ", Rwanda's ambassador to the DRC, Vincent Karega, warned in a June interview with the VOA's Central Africa Service that hate speech is fanning the conflict. Satellite image comparison between January 17, 2023 (left) and May 13, 2023, shows some of the new internally displaced persons camps built around Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Residents in Rugari, a locality in Rutshuru territory which the M23 captured in late October, said that the rebels burned down and destroyed between 40 and 60 houses between October and January. DRCs relations with its neighbors remain charged, including those with Burundi and Uganda in addition to Rwanda. The resurgence of the M23 rebel group since late 2021 led several Congolese armed groups to form a coalition in opposition. Earlier this year, there were deadly protests against the UN and these have resumed in recent days as the M23 has advanced. She joined The Times in 2019 after three and a half years covering West Africa for The Guardian. The role of the East Africa regional force is clearly defined as targeting armed groups. She said that although the Congolese army had fled around February 26, the M23 shelled the village, hitting her uncles house and killing her cousin and another man. "The longstanding rivalry between Uganda and Rwanda in the DRC and the Great Lakes region is a key driver of the current crisis," the Africa Center observed in its report. But there has never been a definitive end to the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC and its president, Felix Tshisekedi, accuse Rwanda of supporting M23, the main rebel group battling the Congolese army in eastern DRC. Now its resurging. The rebels have made advances that include overrunning a Congolese military base in May and taking control of Bunagana, a trading town near the border with Uganda, in June. In July, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta - who played a key role in DR Congo joining the EAC in March - was appointed to facilitate peace talks and oversee the implementation of a peace deal the two sides had agreed in Nairobi. A polling official counts votes in a school in Kinshasa during the Democratic Republic of Congos general elections on December 30, 2018. I asked for forgiveness. At 6 a.m. on October 27, a group of us went to hide in the forest, about 10 women in all, she said. (Nairobi) Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in easternDemocratic Republic of Congohave committed unlawful killings, rape, and other apparent war crimes since late 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. Supporters of Martin Fayulu, the runner up in the Democratic Republic of Congos elections, hold up a coffin with Good Bye Felix as they protest in the street in Kinshasa against the decision of Felix Tshisekedi as president on January 21, 2019. We focused on eastern Congo because it has high rebel activity, high levels of conflict and is well-known for its mineral deposits, mainly gold and the '3T minerals' - tin, tungsten, and. Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted three decades ago and has left more than six million dead and forced 4.5 million from their homes. We cannot go into exile again. Amidst the chaos, Laurent Kabila was assassinated in a coup attempt planned by his own aides and guards. However, the UN later approved the creation of a combat force with the mandate of carrying out targeted offensive operations to pacify armed groups in the region. Bintou Keita, U.N. special representative to the country and head of MONUSCO, warned in June that M23 posed a growing threat to civilians and soon might overpower the mission's 12,500 military personnel. Kenya has one of the most powerful armies in East Africa, People have been fleeing fighting and heading to the border area. . A Congolese army tank heads towards the front line in eastern Congo in May. The Norwegian Refugee Council declared the situation in DR Congo to be the worlds most neglected refugee crisis for the second year running. Nearly 8,000 people have died violently since 2017, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, which monitors conflict and human rights violations. The mans wife said: We knew the government troops were fighting M23. [M23 were following us and] when we got to a place called Volcan, my husband was shot in the back. The agreements, however, did not address accountability for the worst human rights abusers. The M23 was originally made up of soldiers who participated in a mutiny from the Congolese national army in April and May 2012. She urged authorities to hold perpetrators to account and take steps to strengthen social cohesion in order to preserve stability in these areas. The UN sanctions committee should immediately seek additional information on M23 leaders and Rwandan military officers with a view to adopting targeted sanctions against them. Eastern Congo: A Legacy of Intervention The Democratic Republic of Congo has been subjected to centuries of international intervention by European powers, as well as its African neighbors.. The country has other minerals cobalt and coltan needed for batteries to power cellphones, other electronics and aircraft. M23s renewed attacks aim to pressure the Congolese government to answer their demands, said Jason Stearns, head of the Congo Research Group at New York University, in a June briefing with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Mining and armed conflict threaten eastern DRC's biodiversity in a The March 23 Movement (M23) is a Congolese ethnic Tutsi insurgent group founded to hunt down Hutu genocidaires and to oppose the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (DFLR) and other Congo-based Hutu groups. The UN Group of Experts, that monitors the arms embargo and sanctions violations in Congo, independently presented compelling evidence of Rwandan support to the M23 rebels. More than 100 armed groups operate in eastern DRC, an unsettled region where conflict has raged for decades but has escalated in recent months. Fighting broke out between Congolese army forces and the M23. I spent two hours trying to negotiate for them to let me go, in vain. A senior UN official warned the Security Council on Monday that the security situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has continued to deteriorate over the past three months, despite a lull in fighting between M23 rebels and the national army (FARDC). Human Rights Watch also received credible reports of over a dozen other summary killings by M23 forces, but because of access and security constraints, could not independently corroborate them. Rwanda denies the claims. Last November, M23 rebels struck at several Congolese army positions in North Kivu province near the Uganda and Rwanda borders. Map of the area displaying the locations of the newly built internally displaced persons camps. As the third one was raping me, I lost consciousness. The soldiers tied the men to trees and severely beat them. The Norwegian Refugee Council identified the DRC as the worlds most overlooked, under-addressed refugee crisis in 2021, a sorry distinction it also held in 2020 and 2017. Human Rights Watch interviewed six survivors of rape by armed groups, including the FDLR and the Nyatura Abazungu. The DRC president has also called for British prime minister Boris Johnson to intervene, in the wake of the UKs. The Western coalition strives for a globally united front to counter Russia, and the Kremlins growing ties to African states are a threat to that goal. I dont know where they took them. Geopolitics, ethnic and national rivalries, and competition over its natural resources fuel the fighting. But one of those demands is that its fighters be integrated into the Congolese military, which Congos former President Joseph Kabila agreed to and which Professor Nzongola-Ntalaja said President Tshisekedi would not accept. Rebels Incursions Exacerbate Humanitarian Crisis in East, Share this via Facebook Timeline: Eastern Congo: A Legacy of Intervention - Council on Foreign For them and for some Congolese officials, war is a handy cover for smuggling. The armed conflict in eastern Congo is bound by international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, including Common Article 3, Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and customary . Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. The M23, which was formed a decade ago, claims to defend the interests of ethnic Tutsis living in DR Congo against Hutu militias. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), M23, and the Mai-Mai are among the most deadly in North Kivu and Ituri, two mining provinces there, bordering Rwanda and Uganda. Much of it is exported to Dubai before being made into jewelry sold around the world. These camps are located in areas of high lava flow hazard. The United States imports roughly 4 million dollars of precious metal and stone from DRC annually (compared to more than 7 billion in Congolese metals alone imported every year by China). The Democratic Republic of the Congo, scene of the deadliest conflict since World War II, remains the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or a girlin significant part because of the international demand for electronic products that requires minerals found in the eastern Congo. The affects of the conflict are not restricted to DR Congo, but are also souring diplomatic relations between Rwanda and DR Congo, which accuses its neighbour of backing the M23 rebels and even expelled the Rwandan ambassador last week. Conflict in eastern DR Congo forces thousands of schools to close In an attempt to ease the latest crisis, leaders of the East Africa Community (EAC) agreed to send a force to quell the fighting in eastern DR Congo, just months after that country joined the regional grouping. In early August, it also ordered the U.N. to withdraw the mission's spokesperson, Mathias Gillman, saying his "indelicate and inappropriate remarks" exacerbated tensions between the mission and civilians in North Kivu. Are the U.N. peacekeepers free from blame? A woman, 37, and her husband, 36, who fled the fighting around Kitchanga on January 19, said that about a dozen M23 fighters intercepted them and seven others, including three women. It is not clear if Tanzania will deploy troops. Despite denials by Kinshasa, rumors abound that it hired . Some victims said that M23 rebels identified themselves as such or said they had come from Rwanda. The Joe Biden administration has acknowledged that Chinas virtual monopoly in DRCs mining industry plays a significant role in boosting Chinas comparative advantage in the energy and technology arenas, and is a hindrance to U.S. clean energy aspirations. The current diplomatic spat seems to have been triggered by fighting between DRC forces and M23 on several fronts in North Kivu, a conflict-torn province which borders Rwanda . The Congolese government is investigating. The Second Congo War, [a] also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War and sometimes referred to as the African World War, began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year after the First Congo War, and involved some of the same issues. The 59-year-old Tshisekedi, who is up for reelection in 2023, has said Rwanda cannot be part of the security force. Both the M23 and the Congolese army have accused each other of starting the clashes leading to the current crisis. A small subset of those Rwandans who entered DRC were Hutu extremists who feared retribution or prosecution at home and began organizing militias within the Congo. Burundian troops will concentrate in South Kivu, where they will battle the Tabara milita. Defence and security analysts say DR Congo has been lobbying Mr Kenyatta's successor, William Ruto, on the peace initiative and deployment of the regional force. Share this via Telegram On June 6, Human Rights Watch spoke with an M23 spokesperson who said the armed group denied allegations that its forces have committed abuses. Some of the fighting is over control of eastern DRCs vast natural resources, including diamonds, gold, copper and timber. The survey will take no more than 4 minutes to complete. These militias are typically organized along ethnic lines, and some were previously rivals. FILE - Demonstrators face police during a protest against the United Nations peacekeeping force (MONUSCO) deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Sake, some 24 kilometers west of Goma, July 27, 2022. Survivors and witnesses identified M23 fighters on the basis of their uniforms and equipment, in some cases with the help of photographs published by the UN Group of Experts on Congo. Conflict is escalating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, home to more than 100 armed groups, including M23. FILE - Bintou Keita, head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, briefs reporters after the Security Council meeting on the situation concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 29, 2022. Lately, Kenya has been leading efforts to broker peace, gathering leaders from the East African Community a seven-nation regional bloc that includes both Congo and Rwanda to try to resolve the crisis. Rwandan President Kagame, 64, told the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency he has "no problem" with that. Conflict in Eastern Congo: A Spark Away from a Regional Conflagration, PA Certificate of Charitable Registration. Our house was next to a hospital. Late last November, Uganda and the DRC began a joint military operation in North Kivu to hunt down the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group of Ugandan rebels affiliated with the Islamic State and designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. Share this via Twitter Kinshasa accused Kigali of funding and supporting M23s resurgence (an accusation supported by the African Union and the United States). The Kabila-Kagame coalition won the First Congo War in 1997 when Mobutu fled Kinshasa. The Congolese army has reported that the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group attacked villages in North Kivu province near its eastern border with Uganda. People who lived in M23-occupied areas told Human Rights Watch that M23 combatants looted, destroyed, or set fire to property, forced people to work for them without pay, and abducted men for possible forced recruitment. Competition for resources and influence in DRC also has sharpened longstanding rivalries between Rwanda and Uganda. A large part of the gold traded by Uganda and Rwanda is sourced fraudulently from neighboring countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, said a 2018 report published by the U.N. Group of Experts on Congo. He dropped dead and I couldnt stay because there were so many bullets being fired at us. A 30-year-old woman described her encounter with rebel fighters close to Kitchanga, while she and her husband fled the fighting.