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The rebels supported by Rwanda who seized the largest city in the eastern Congo said on Thursday that they wanted to transfer their battle to the remote capital, Kinshasa, while the Congo President called for the massive military mobilization to resist the rebellion and the Minister of Defense rejected calls for talks.
In a video message, Congo Defense Secretary Jay Kabumbo Modiafita said he had made plans for any dialogue with the rebels, “they are completely burned.”
“We will stay here in the Congo and fighting. If we are not alive here, let’s stay dead here,” said Modiafita, a close ally of the Congo President.
At a press conference where they sought to confirm their control over the eastern city of Juma and the surrounding lands in the neighboring South Kivu province, the M23 rebels said they would be open to dialogue with the government, which was proposed by the Eastern African regional bloc as well, including Rwanda as a member.
Cornell Nanga, a political leader in M23, said during the briefing that their motivation was to obtain political strength.
“We want to go to Kinshasa, and we take power and the country’s money,” Nanga said. He did not explain how the rebels planned to advance in the capital, more than 1500 km away.
Rwanda’s leader, Paul Kagame, said that he spoke with Angola President Joao Lorenco – a mediator in the conflict that also met with the Congo leader one day before – and both leaders are committing to work with other African countries to solve these hostilities.
The President of the Congo undertakes to respond with a strong, coordinated response.
A United Nations spokesman said the agency was “disturbed” from reports that the neighboring Rwandan forces had crossed the border in the direction in which the rebels are said to advance.
The M23 rebels are supported by about 4000 soldiers from Rwanda, according to United Nations experts, much more than in 2012, when they first seized Goma. It is one of more than 100 armed groups competing for control of minerals rich in the Congo, which carries wide deposits of $ 24 trillion USD and is crucial for most technology in the world.
Meanwhile, Congolese President Felix Chesikdi called on young people to recruit the army, as a decisive meeting of the neighbors who asked the Congolese government to speak with the rebels. The leader of Rwanda also threatened to “deal” with any confrontation with South Africa, which complained that fighting in the eastern Congo had left a dead in South Africa.
Watch | M23 The rebels demand the control of Goma in the eastern Congo:
Despair, looting and corpses were reported in the streets in Goma, after Rwanda -backed M23 rebels claimed that they had seized the Congolese city. It is the latest step after years of fighting in the country rich in minerals.
In his first public statements since the M23 rebels submitted to Goma on Monday, TSHISESEDI pledged to be a “strong and coordinated response” from his forces to push the rebels, while reaffirming his commitment to a peaceful solution.
On Thursday, he met with French Foreign Minister Jean -Nweim Barrot in Kinshasa, and the Presidency of the Congolese said on X, noting that France provided great support to the Congo in the recent United Nations meetings on this issue.
“(Congo) expects more work in the face of this crisis,” he added.
Corps, looting in Goma
Goma remained largely without electricity and water on Thursday, as the bodies of many alleged government soldiers were in the streets.
The rebels took M23 about 2000 government soldiers and police officers-who said they surrendered-to an unknown location, some sang TSHISECEDI control songs.
Bruneo Limarkis, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the Congo, said the basic services are largely paralyzed in Goma, a decisive human center for more than six million people displaced by the conflict.
“After several days of extensive clashes, the city is now (confrontation) with huge humanitarian needs and very influential response capabilities.”
Footage of Juma, who hold food and commodities, showed looting of stores and warehouses in the city.
“This is something that will exacerbate a dangerous violence cycle as desperate times call for desperate measures,” said Cennatia Jones, emergency coordinator of the United Nations Emergency Program in the East Congo.
After the seizure of many Juma, the rebels were advancing towards the capital of the province of South Kivu, Bocafo, causing fear and panic among the population, witnesses said on Thursday.
Who are M23 and what do they want?
The chaotic situation with the M23 has its roots in the ethnic conflict, and it extends to the 1994 collective genocide in Rwanda, when 800,000 Tutsi and others were killed by Hottos and the previous militias. M23 says he is defending the ethnic totsi in the Congo.
Rwanda has claimed that Tutsi was persecuted by Hotos and other genocide. Several Hotos fled to the Congo after 1994.
Unlike 2012 when the rebels seized the Congo for several days, observers say their withdrawal may be more difficult now. The rebels have been encouraged by Rwanda, who feels that the Congo ignores its interests in the region and failed to meet the demands of previous peace agreements, according to Murith Muttega, director of the Africa program in the crisis group, a research center.
“In the end, this is a failure of African mediation, (because) the warning signs were always present. Kigali was a very severe speech and the Congolese government was also adopting a very aggressive speech,” Motija said.
