The rebel group March 23 Movement (M23) has claimed to have held a meeting with representatives of the Army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to discuss a «peaceful resolution» to the conflict in the east of the country, which has also led to an upsurge in tensions between the Congolese and Rwandan governments.
M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement that the meeting took place on Monday in Kibumba and added that delegates from the army, the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and other regional organizations participated in the meeting.
The group has indicated that the meeting took place «in a peaceful atmosphere» and expressed its desire for «a new meeting». «The M23 renews its appeal to the international community by sounding the alarm of the ongoing genocide and the selective nature of humanitarian organizations, which do not assist the victims in and around Bwiza,» it denounced.
For his part, the spokesman of the Congolese Army in North Kivu, Guillaume Njike Kaiko, indicated that the meeting took place at the request of the M23 and revealed that the Armed Forces have guaranteed that they will not attack the rebels when they withdraw from the areas they occupy in the east of the country.
Thus, he indicated in declarations to the Congolese radio station Radio Okapi that «they fear that, if they withdraw from the zones they occupy, following the request of the heads of state (of the DRC and Rwanda) at the mini-summit in Luanda, the Congolese armed forces will proceed to attack them».
«The Congolese Army authorities who participated in this meeting (…) assured the M23 that if they implement the will of the heads of state, as expressed, there will be no attacks by the Armed Forces», he said.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in North Kivu, despite the Congolese authorities and the M23 signed in December 2013 a peace agreement following fighting since 2012, in which the military was supported by UN troops. UN experts accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the rebels, although both countries denied it.
The conflict has led to a diplomatic confrontation between the DRC and Rwanda, whose relations have been in crisis since the massive arrival in eastern DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of having massacred the Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
NEW ADF ATTACK On the other hand, at least ten people were killed on Tuesday in a new attack perpetrated by alleged members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), linked to the Islamic State, against the town of Ndalya, in the province of Ituri (east).
Christophe Munyaanderu, coordinator of the Convention for the Respect of Human Rights in Irumu, indicated that «the ADF carried out an incursion» and added that «two houses were set on fire by the assailants», according to the Congolese news portal 7sur7.
The event took place hours after Uganda confirmed the death of a military officer and eleven alleged members of the ADF in clashes after a group of assailants tried to break into the town of Ntoroko (west), near the border with the DRC.
The ADF, a Ugandan group created in the 1990s particularly active in eastern DRC and accused of the killing of hundreds of civilians in this part of the country, could be trying to return to operate in Uganda, from where it withdrew in 2003 after a series of military operations that drastically reduced its capacity to carry out attacks in the country.
The group underwent a split in 2019 after Musa Baluku–sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States–swore allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), under whose banner it has been operating ever since. The increase in his attacks and the claim of an attack in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, led both countries to launch the aforementioned joint operations in eastern DRC.
