Rwandan-backed group declares ceasefire in Congo's war-torn east

GOMA, Congo (AFP) — Rwandan-backed armed group M23 announced a humanitarian “ceasefire” from Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s perennially explosive east, days before a planned crisis meeting between the Congolese and Rwandan leaders.

The M23 and Rwandan troops last week seized Goma — the provincial capital of the mineral-rich North Kivu region that has been blighted by conflict from multiple armed groups for over three decades.

Fighting has stopped in the city, which is home to more than a million people, but clashes have spread to the neighboring province of South Kivu, raising fears of an M23 advance to its capital, Bukavu.

A political-military coalition of groups called the Alliance Fleuve Congo (River Congo Alliance), of which M23 is a member, said in a statement late Monday that it would implement “a ceasefire” from the next day “for humanitarian reasons.”

It added that it had “no intention of taking control of Bukavu or other localities,” despite the M23 having said last week that it wanted to “continue the march” to the Congolese capital Kinshasa.

In more than three years of fighting between the Rwanda-backed group and the Congolese army, half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been declared, before being systematically broken.

With fears of a regional conflagration spiraling, the Kenyan presidency announced on Monday that Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame would attend a joint summit of the eight-country East African Community and the 16-member Southern African Development Community in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Saturday.

A local source in Bukavu told AFP the city “remains calm for the moment,” but information suggests the M23 was “reorganizing itself with troop reinforcements and weapons to go to the front now that fighting has ceased in Goma.”

‘Lifeline’

The University of Goma called on students to come back to class on Monday, signaling a desire to return to normal in the city.

At least 900 people were killed in the Goma clashes and 2,880 wounded, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian body.

The ceasefire follows warnings from international observers that the escalation of violence could worsen an already dire humanitarian situation.

Last week, the Congolese government said more than half a million people had been displaced in North and South Kivu in January alone.

The U.N. Human Rights Council said it would hold a special session on Friday to focus on “the human rights situation in eastern DRC” following a request by Kinshasa.

Goma city is “facing a humanitarian emergency,” the U.N.’s OCHA said on Tuesday, urging authorities to reopen the airport.

“Goma airport is a lifeline. Without it, the evacuation of the seriously injured, the delivery of medical supplies and the reception of humanitarian reinforcements are paralyzed,” it said in a statement.

South-Africa Rwanda spat

In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to keep providing support to Congo in the face of nationwide calls to withdraw his country’s troops following the deaths of 14 South African soldiers.

Most of those killed were part of an armed force sent to eastern Congo in 2023 by the Southern African Development Community bloc.

Kagame has said South African troops have no place in eastern Congo and are a “belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC government fight against its own people.”

A U.N. expert report said last year that Rwanda had up to 4,000 troops in Congo, seeking to profit from the mining of minerals, and that Kigali has “de facto” control over the M23.

Eastern Congo has deposits of coltan, the metallic ore that is vital in making phones and laptops, as well as gold and other minerals.

Rwanda has never explicitly admitted to military involvement in support of the M23 group and alleges that Congo supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

In Kinshasa, calls have been growing for protests to demand action from the international community. However, the authorities have banned demonstrations after embassies were attacked during previous rallies.

Access to social media has been restricted in Kinshasa since Sunday.

Hundreds of Congolese in the South African capital Pretoria protested Tuesday outside the European Union offices, calling for sanctions against Rwanda.

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By Agence France-Presse