July 7. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The rebel group March 23 Movement (M23) have refused this Thursday to withdraw from their positions in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after the announcement on Wednesday of an agreement between the country and Rwanda for a ceasefire in the border area.
Angolan President Joao Lourenço said on Wednesday that his DRC and Rwandan counterparts, Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, respectively, had agreed to lower tensions after talks mediated by Luanda.
“I announce with satisfaction that we have made progress, to the extent that we have agreed to a ceasefire,” he said, before adding that the parties also agreed to withdraw the M23 from the areas occupied by the rebels.
However, the group’s spokesman, Willy Ngoma, has ruled out this possibility, in statements given to the British television network BBC. “Withdraw to go where? We are Congolese. Do you want us to live without a country?” He asked himself.
Ngoma has emphasized that this is a political problem that must be resolved by the Congolese. The rebel group has defended the “noble and just cause” of defending the rights of the Congolese population that speaks Kinyarwanda.
Tshisekedi warned on Wednesday of the danger of a war with Rwanda if Kigali maintains “its provocations” and reiterated his accusations against Rwanda for its alleged support for M23, something rejected by Kigali, which insists that the group is made up of Congolese.
For his part, Kagame said on Monday that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)–an armed rebel group founded and made up mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in the African country–receive support from the Congolese Army, a theory rejected by Tshisekedi.
Relations between the DRC and Rwanda have gone through moments of crisis since the massive arrival in eastern DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of having massacred the Tutsis during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. After a certain stage of diplomatic relaxation, the conflict regained intensity in May, when the Congolese government summoned the Rwandan ambassador to denounce the country’s alleged support for the M23.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in North Kivu, despite the fact that the Congolese authorities and the M23 signed a peace agreement in December 2013 after the combats registered since 2012 with the Army, which was supported by United Nations troops. UN experts accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the rebels, although both countries denied this.
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