A millet of insurgents known as M23 has confiscated the key Congolese town of GomaEndangering displaced civilians and increasing the concerns of the wider regional war.
About 400,000 people fled their homes in the East Congo when the rebels advanced to Goma, according to the UN Refugee. Many others have arrived in the city in the last few days.
According to the UN and the United States, the M23 is funded and directed by the rwanda government. Rwanda denies any direct connection to the group.
The conflict has its roots in Rwand’s 1994 Genocide, which spilled across the border to Congo, which has led to a decade of fighting. Like Rwanda’s leaders, the M23 is mostly formed by people from the ethnic group Tutsi.
What is M23?
M23 is one of the more than 100 militias that roams The Eastern Congo region rich in minerals. However, the group excels in the rest of its territorial profits and control of the lucrative mining industry in this area.
“They represent a much greater threat to Congo than any other armed group,” said Judith Verweijen, a research worker with 15 years of experience in Eastern Congo, who teaches at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
The name of the group concerns its assertion that the Congolese government could not honor the former peace agreement signed on 23 March 2009.
The M23 leaders say that the group is in the Eastern Congo to protect colleagues Tutsis and other speakers of the cinemaarwand before persecution by the Congolese authorities.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned against extensive hateful manifestations against Tutsis in the Eastern Congo and said last year that the risks of crimes of genocide and atrocities in the region remained high. The Eastern Congo also contains hundreds of suspicious perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide who were not brought to court said.
The group was founded in 2012 and first captured Goma for the first time before it became global leaders pushed on Rwand. For most of the year 2010 lay sleeping and before renewing attacks on the Congolese army in 2021.
Who supports M23?
M23 is under the military command of Sultani Makenga, the Congolese rebel, who fought in Rwanda at the age of 90, joined the Congolese army in 2000 and then joined the M23 in 2012.
Mr. Makenga receives instructions and support from the Rwandan Army and from Rwandan intelligence services, According to UN experts and the Congolese and Western news agencies.
Rwanda denied any direct connection. He also claims that the reinforced military presence of Congo in the east threatens its safety and that the region contains members of the ethnic Hutu Group who were 1994 genocide.
Experts say Rwanda, a country smaller than Massachusetts with limited natural resources, is trying to expand its sphere of influence and plunder mineral resources in the eastern Congo.
What are the origin of M23?
After the 1994 genocide, about a million people from the ethnic Hutu group from Rwanda to Congo fled and then called Zaire. Among them were many genocidair, responsible for killing millions of Tutsis. In 1996, Rwanda Kongo attacked and supported the rebellion, which eventually led to the fall of the long -time kleptocratic leader Congo, Mobutu was Seko.
At the end of 2000, several groups were created that prevented Tutsis in Congo and fought against the Congolese army, including the predecessor of M23, the National Congress for the defense of the people. On 23rd March 2009, the group signed a peace agreement with Congo and agreed to integrate its fighters into the national army.
This agreement disintegrated in 2012, when hundreds of former Rebel soldiers froze in the Congo Army and created the M23 movement.
In 2013, after Rwanda stopped the financing of the group under intensive international pressure, the Congolese army and the UN M23 were defeated.
It has been offensive since it reappeared in 2021.
What is new this time?
Experts see several main differences from the 2012 M23 offensive.
Territory: M23 now controls twice as much land as in 2012, according to Binta Keit, the highest UN official in Congo. The territory under his control increased by 30 percent between April and November last year. As rebels caught more territory, sexual violence was Ramp And the injured suffered by heavy artillery rose sharply.
Capacity: In the last year, M23 has accelerated recruitment, voluntary and forced, including minors. According to UN experts, such as anti -tank missiles, its warriors used weapons that have never been to the eastern Congo.
Rwandan units: UN said in the report of the smallest year That up to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers were deployed in northern Kiva, the main area of M23 operations, which exceeded the number of M23 fighters.
What is the M23 end game?
According to the UN, M23 plans “territorial expansion and long -term profession and exploitation of conquered territories”.
In April, the group confiscated Rubaya, home to one of the world’s largest mines, key parts in the production of smartphones. According to UN M23 experts, it issued a mining permit and created the “state administration” for mining, trade and transport, with more than $ 800,000 per month.
According to reports documenting trade from the territory controlled M23, minerals are eventually routed to Rwanda.
In 2012, the M23 pulled from Goma after Rwanda pulled the support of the group. Western donors later applied diplomatic pressure on Rwanda and reduced the much needed help. This time the same forces used only words to condemn the offensive.
“Rwanda could test water to find out what she could get away from,” Mrs. Verweijen said. “It will shape how the M23 insurgent will develop from now on.”
