MUST READ
No Rivalry between Uganda and Rwanda: There is simply connivance to help imperialists loot Mineral resources in DR Congo
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/07/no-rivalry-between-uganda-and-rwanda.html
DR Congo accuses Uganda’s Army of helping M23 rebels to capture Bunagana border town :Congo MPs vow to halt UPDF operations against ADF
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/06/dr-congo-accuses-ugandas-army-of.html
Fooling us about Uganda’s neutrality in the Congo Conflict!!! Militarizing the Congo to help USA and allies to rape Congo resources: DRC troops, civilians fleeing to Uganda after rebel clashes
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/07/fooling-us-about-ugandas-neutrality-in.html
No more Rwandans, let's go and sort out Kagame: Thousands in anti-Rwanda rally in eastern DR Congo city: UK forced to cancel deportation flight to Rwanda after European court ruling
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/06/no-more-rwandans-lets-go-and-sort-out.html
End of the M23 Era but no end yet to USA and her clients’ looting of Congo resources : Kabila Congratulates Congo Army for Defeating M23 Rebels: FARDC captured Ugandan and Rwandan Nationals fighting alongside M23 Rebels
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2013/10/end-of-m23-era-but-no-end-yet-to-usa.html
It is a neo-liberal ploy to loot Congo resources Stupid! US backed M23 rebels fighting in eastern Congo force hundreds into Uganda
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2021/11/it-is-neo-liberal-ploy-to-loot-congo.html
Britain’s Hero Paul Kagame Re-embarks on plan to create Confusion in DR Congo to Facilitate Western Plunder: DR Congo army accuses Rwanda of deploying soldiers 'to defend M23': Rwanda says UK asylum seekers to arrive 'in next few weeks': UK asylum seekers hide to avoid transfer to Rwanda
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/06/britains-hero-paul-kagame-re-embarks-on.html
Western Neo-liberal banditry: There goes the Fracas Again: Congolese soldiers flee to Uganda as M23 rebels capture Bunagana border
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/06/western-neo-liberal-banditry-there-goes.html
Rwanda attacked Congo troops, backed rebels – UN experts
https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/rwanda-attacked-congo-troops-backed-rebels-un-experts-3903736
What you need to know:
- The DRC has repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing the militia, which has captured swathes of territory in recent months. Kigali has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Rwandan troops have attacked soldiers inside DR Congo and aided the M23 rebel group, according to a report by independent experts for the UN seen by AFP on Thursday.
The findings follow months of deepening tensions between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda over the notorious M23.
The DRC has repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing the militia, which has captured swathes of territory in recent months. Kigali has repeatedly denied any involvement.
But according to a 131-page report by experts for the UN Security Council, Rwanda has launched military interventions inside Congolese territory since at least November 2021.
Rwanda also "provided troop reinforcements" for specific M23 operations, the report said, "in particular when these aimed at seizing strategic towns and areas."
A Rwandan government spokesperson in a statement described the allegations as "unvalidated" and stressed that Rwanda had the right to defend itself.
"Rwanda has a legitimate and sovereign right to defend our territory and citizens, and not just wait for disaster to unfold," Yolande Makolo said.
The investigation for the UN also found that Congolese forces had been providing support for armed groups in the deeply troubled east.
The M23 -- for "March 23 Movement" -- is a primarily Congolese Tutsi group.
It first leapt to prominence in 2012 when it briefly captured the eastern DRC city of Goma before a joint Congolese-UN offensive drove it out.
After lying mostly dormant for years, the rebel group resumed fighting late last year.
It has made significant advances, notably capturing the strategic town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border in June.
'Joint attack'
On May 25, the report said, a large DRC army base in Rumangabo in eastern North Kivu province came under heavy mortar and small-arms fire.
M23 fighters and Rwandan troops "jointly attacked" the site after Rwandan troops had crossed into the DRC the day before, it alleged.
An estimated 1,000 Rwandan troops also cut the main highway leading to the provincial capital Goma, an important commercial hub on the Rwandan border, and attacked Congolese positions, it said.
On the eve of the attack on Bunagana, and on the day itself, Rwandan soldiers were in the vicinity, the report said, citing drone images from the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, eyewitnesses, amateur videos and photos.
It added that Ugandan troops at the border acquiesced to M23 fighters crossing into the DRC.
"On repeated occasions, aerial imagery showed large columns of up to 500 armed men in the vicinity of the DRC, Rwandan and Ugandan borders, moving in a very organized manner," the report said.
The columns of soldiers wore "standardized military attire" that bore close resemblance to Rwandan army uniforms, the report added.
Some 300 Rwandan troops also conducted operations against rebel groups in eastern DRC, such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The FDLR is a Rwandan Hutu rebel group based in the DRC, which the Rwandan government views as a threat. Kigali has regularly accused Congo of supporting the militia.
DRC and militias
The UN report also found that the Congolese army supported militias active in the east of the country.
On May 26, after being dislodged from positions near the Goma highway, the Congolese army launched a counterattack alongside militia fighters, for example.
A coalition of armed groups had formed in May, with the knowledge of Congolese officers, the report said.
Leaders of several militias confirmed to the experts that the Congolese army had provided them with weapons and munitions "on several occasions," it added.
The DRC and Rwanda have had strained relations since the mass influx of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Relations began to thaw after DRC President Felix Tshisekedi took office in 2019 but the M23's resurgence reignited tensions.
The report comes after 36 people died in eastern Congo last week during protests against the UN's peacekeeping force, which were fuelled by perceptions that it is ineffectual against armed groups.
A poll by New York University's Congo Research Group and Congolese research institute Ebuteli, published on Thursday, found that 44 percent of Congolese people interviewed thought peacekeepers should leave the country.
Rwanda Is Backing Rebels Fighting Congo, UN Report Says
- Findings based on eyewitness testimonies, drone footage
- Rwanda helping M23 rebels fight Congo, according to report
Rwanda is equipping and fighting alongside a rebel group in Democratic Republic of Congo, a report by a United Nations group of experts on Congo showed.
The panel presented evidence based on eyewitness testimony and drone footage that the Rwanda Defence Force has supported the M23 rebel group since November, according to the report sent to the UN Security Council this week, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg. The soldiers attacked rebel groups based in Congo who oppose the Rwandan government, and fought against the Congolese army, known as the FARDC, to expand M23 territory, the group said.
Congo’s government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on Twitter that the government “rejoiced at the conclusions of the work of the group of experts,” which it hoped would “put an end to Rwandan interference.”
Rwanda’s government said the M23 is “well-known as a problem of the DRC, which they seek to make a burden of other countries,” according to a statement published on its website. “Rwanda has disarmed and cantoned M23 fighters far from the DRC border. Others scattered in the region, who are in conflict with their government, are not Rwanda’s responsibility.”
The M23’s leadership is largely made up of members of Congo’s Tutsi community, who say they are defending the interests of Rwandan-language speakers in the country and fighting Hutu rebel groups accused of bearing responsibility for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. More than 800,000 people, most of them Tutsi, were killed during the mayhem.
The RDF has launched multiple attacks on Congolese territory against the Hutu groups, according to the UN experts’ report.
Rwanda accused Congo of working closely with one of the Hutu-led groups, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, according to its statement. It also said recent Congolese attacks and shelling into Rwandan territory killed its citizens and destroyed property.
“Rwanda has a legitimate and sovereign right to defend our territory and citizens, and not just wait for disaster to unfold,” the government said in the statement.
Kagame Slams Congo Leader Over ‘Real Issues’ Amid War Risk
The experts’ dispatch comes less than two months after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi accused Kigali of backing rebels against his government. Rwandan leader Paul Kagame denied the allegations and said Tshisekedi had failed to deal with militant groups in eastern Congo, including insurgents linked to the genocide that Kagame wants destroyed.
The Rwandan army unilaterally or with M23 combatants “engaged in military operations against Congolese armed groups and FARDC positions,” the experts said in the 29-page report. The Rwandans also “provided troop reinforcements” to the rebels for specific operations, such as seizing strategic towns, according to the document.
Since March, the M23 has nearly tripled the size of the territory under its control, including the town of Bunagana on Congo’s border with Uganda, according to the group of experts.
The report includes an annex with dozens of pages of photographs and screen captures of drone footage that appear to support accusations by Congo’s government that Rwanda is backing the M23 rebellion, which the UN refugee agency estimates to have displaced more than 170,000 people since November. The Congolese army and UN peacekeepers defeated a previous M23 rebellion backed by Rwanda in 2013.
A spokeswoman for the UN’s mission in Congo didn’t respond to a message requesting comment.
— With assistance by Fred Ojambo
Rwanda's defence minister is commanding a rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that is being armed by Rwanda and Uganda, both of which sent troops to aid the insurgency in a deadly attack on UN peacekeepers, according to a UN report.
The UN Security Council's Group of Experts said in a confidential report that Rwanda and Uganda - despite their strong denials - continued to support M23 rebels in their six-month fight against Congolese government troops in North Kivu province.
"Both Rwanda and Uganda have been supporting M23," said the 44-page report, which was seen by the Reuters news agency on Tuesday.
"Rwandan officials exercise overall command and strategic planning for M23," the report said. "Rwanda continues to violate the arms embargo through direct military support to M23 rebels, facilitation of recruitment, encouragement and facilitation of FARDC [Congolese army] desertions as well as the provision of arms and ammunition, intelligence, and political advice."
"While Rwandan officials coordinated the creation of the rebel movement as well as its major military operations, Uganda's more subtle support to M23 allowed the rebel group's political branch to operate from within Kampala and boost its external relations," it said.
Bosco Ntaganda, a former Congolese general wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, controls the rebellion on the ground and M23 leader Sultani Makenga is in charge of operations and co-ordination with allied armed groups, the UN report said.
Both Ntaganda and Makenga "receive direct military orders from RDF [Rwandan army] Chief of Defence staff General Charles Kayonga, who in turn acts on instructions from Minister of Defence General James Kabarebe," it said.
'De facto administration'
Nearly half a million people have been displaced due to the fighting.
M23 has proven so resilient that one senior UN diplomatic source told Reuters that Rwanda has effectively "annexed" mineral-rich eastern Congo thanks to the rebel force.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said last month that the rebels had set up de facto administration in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, controlling the people and collecting taxes.
The rebellion also is being funded by traders in Rwanda who are profiting from tin, tungsten and tantalum smuggled across the border from mines in the eastern DRC, according to the UN experts' report.
An interim report from the Group of Experts that was published in June raised similar accusations against Rwanda but with far less detail. Kigali was furious about that report, saying it was one-side and contained false allegations.
Rwanda has backed armed movements in the Congo during the past two decades, citing a need to tackle Rwandan rebels operating out of Congo's eastern hills.
The new report said that M23 had expanded its control of Rutshuru Territory with extensive foreign support in July 2012 and had taken advantage of a recent informal ceasefire "to expand alliances and command proxy operations elsewhere."
The experts said that units of the Ugandan and Rwandan armies "jointly supported M23 in a series of attacks in July 2012 to take over the major towns in Rutshuru Territory, and the [Congolese army] base of Rumangabo."
During these attacks, the rebels killed a UN peacekeeper and fired on a UN peacekeeping base at Kiwanja.
"According to several M23 soldiers, RDF troops provided the rebels with heavy weapons such as 12.7 mm machine guns, 60 mm, 91 mm and 120 mm mortars, as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft launchers ahead of the attack," the report said.
"RDF Special Forces in Rutshuru also aided the rebels and fired 13 rounds on a FARDC [Congolese army] combat helicopter during the takeover of Kiwanja," it said.
charges denied
Uganda and Rwanda have denied the accusations of involvement by the UN experts, who monitor compliance with sanctions and an arms embargo on the Congo and delivered their report to the Security Council's Congo sanctions committee earlier this month.
Ugandan military spokesman Felix Kulayigye rejected the report.
"Where's the evidence for their claims? Some of those so-called experts came here and did not interview anyone," he said. "Where's their authentic facts to back those claims? Those accusations are absolute rubbish, hogwash."
Olivier Nduhungirehe, senior Rwandan diplomat at the country's UN mission, had a similar denial, which he sent to Reuters on Sunday. He said the UN experts had been "allowed to pursue a political agenda that has nothing to do with getting at the true causes of conflict in the eastern DRC."
Rwandan President Paul Kagame reiterated Rwanda's denials at a high level meeting in New York last month that both he and Congolese President Joseph Kabila attended.
The Group of Experts said that it had corroborated its findings with multiple intelligence sources.
