The Army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has denied accusations by the rebel group March 23 Movement (M23) about the involvement of Wagner Group mercenaries in the conflict.
«The Wagner Group does not operate in the Democratic Republic of Congo», the army spokesman, Major General Sylvain Ekenge, denied to the British BBC. A denial that was repeated last October by DRC President Felix Tshisekedi. «We don’t need mercenaries,» he told The Financial Times.
In recent weeks, rumors have been growing that mercenaries from the Russian group would be collaborating with the DRC authorities to contain the M23 rebels, who in recent months have regained large areas in the east of the country, where fighting has been taking place for years.
«It is true, the Wagner Group is here. We have evidence that we will show in due time,» M23 spokesman Willy Ngoma told the same channel on Wednesday, assuring that last week they clashed with a group made up of mercenaries from the group and DRC military in the Rutshuru area of North Kivu.
These accusations have also been picked up by Rwanda, which the DRC accuses of supporting the rebels. Its president, Paul Kagame, this week accused the Congolese government of using the Wagner Group and warned of the «disaster» of this maneuver. «Mercenaries are the most useless people you can trust,» he said.
The presence of the Wagner Group is increasingly notorious in the conflicts taking place on the African continent, in addition to its already known participation on the side of the government of the Central African Republic to fight the rebels, it is suspected of doing the same in several countries of the Sahel.
As far as DRC is concerned, the M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in North Kivu, despite the fact that the Congolese authorities and the rebel group signed in December 2013 a peace agreement following the fighting recorded since 2012.
The situation has led to a spike in tensions between DRC and Rwanda, as Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the rebels. Kigali, for its part, denounces Kinshasa’s support for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), founded and composed mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
