On Sunday, the Congo government said that the Rwanda -backed rebels “occupied” a second major city in the Eastern Congo -rich in minerals, where the M23 rebels put themselves in the ruler's office in Boukavo and pledged to clean after the “old system”.
Associated Press Journalists witnessed dozens of residents who chanted the rebels after entering Bukavo after a period of days from Ghauma, a city that includes 2 million people seized last month.
The rebels did not see a few resistance from government forces against the unprecedented expansion of their arrival after years of fighting. The Congo government has pledged to restore the regime in Bocafo, a city with a population of 1.3 million, but there was no sign of the soldiers. Many were seen fleeing on Saturday along with thousands of civilians.
The M23 is the most prominent among more than 100 armed groups that compete to control the trillion dollars in the Eastern Congo in the mineral wealth that is decisive in technology in the world. The rebels are supported by about 4000 soldiers from the neighboring Rwanda, according to L. United Nations Experts.
The fighting has displaced more than 6 million people in the region, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.
The rebels undertake the “cleaning” disorder
Bernard Mahish Piamongo, one of the leaders of the M23 who were punished by the United Nations Security Council, stood in front of the office of the ruler of South Kevo in Boukavo and told the residents that they were living in a “forest.”
“We will clean the turmoil left by the old regime,” said Piamongo, as some in the small crowd of young people accused the rebels to “go to Kinshasa”, the capital of Congo, about 1000 miles away.
M23 has not announced any seizure of Bukavu, unlike its announcement when taking Goma, which brought Swift International Enteration. M23 spokesman did not answer the questions on Sunday.
The Ministry of Communications in the Congo admitted in a statement on social media for the first time that Bocafo was “busy” and said that the national government “is doing everything possible to restore regional regime and integrity” in the region.
A population of Bukavo, Blaise Pimongo, said that the rebels marched to the city that “was abandoned by all authorities and without any sincere force.”
“Is the government awaiting to take over other cities to take action? It is cheese.”
The rebels M23, the second largest city in the eastern Congo, Boukavo, and the control of the Administrative Office of the South Kevo Province, on Sunday. (AP Photo/January Barhiiga)
Fears of regional escalation
Unlike 2012, when M23 briefly seized Goma and withdrew after international pressure, analysts said this time the rebels are looking for political power.
Fighting in the Congo He has links with the ethnic conflict for contracts. M23 says he is defending the ethnic totsi in the Congo. Rwanda claimed that Tutsi is persecuted by Hotos and the former militias responsible for the 1994 group genocide, which includes 800,000 Tutsi and others in Rwanda. Several Hotos fled to the Congo after the genocide and established the democratic forces to liberate the Rwanda militia group.
Rwanda says the militia group is “completely integrated” in the Congolese army, which denies this.
But the new face of the M23 in the region-Corneille Nangaa-is not the TURTSI, where the group gives a “new face more diversified and a Congolese, where the M23 was always seen as an armed group backed by Rwanda defending the Tutsi minorities,” according to Christian Malic, a political world At the center of Congolese thought.
Congo President Felix Chesikdi, whose government confirmed on Saturday that Bocafo remained under its control, of the danger of regional expansion in the conflict.
The Congo forces in Goma were supported by South African forces and Boukavo by Burundi forces. But it seems that the President of Burundi, Evarest Nedishmie, suggests social media that his country will not run out of fighting.
The struggle was highly a CAF summit in Ethiopia during the weekend, with UN Secretary -General Antonio Guterres warning that he risked photographing in a regional fire.
However, African leaders and the international community were hesitating to take decisive action against the M23 or RWANDA, which had one of the strongest armies in Africa. Most of them continue to call a ceasefire and dialogue between the Congo and the rebels.
The coalition of the Congo, an alliance of rebel group, said M23, said it is committed to “defending” the people of Bocafo.
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“We call on residents to remain in the control of their city and not to be terrified,” coalition spokesman Lawrence Kanooka said in a statement on Saturday.
