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According to experts commissioned by the UN, the Rwandan army has been supporting the M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, providing them with “troop reinforcements” as well as “weapons, ammunition and uniforms”.
Rwanda accused again of supporting the M23 rebels. The Kigali army has carried out military operations in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and has provided “weapons, ammunition and uniforms” to the rebel group, according to a report by UN-mandated experts, not yet published but consulted on Thursday by the AFP news agency.
The experts affirm in this document, already transmitted to the Security Council, having gathered “substantial evidence” that demonstrates “the direct intervention of the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, at least between November 2021 and October 2022.
This new report, which will be published in the coming days, comes as the Tutsi rebel group M23 (March 23 Movement) has conquered large swaths of territory in North Kivu, a Congolese province bordering Rwanda, since relaunching its offensive in October, which has caused a sharp increase in tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali.
Kinshasa, the United States and several European countries, including France, accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23. Kigali denies this and, in return, accuses the Democratic Republic of the Congo of using the conflict for electoral purposes and of having “manufactured” a massacre that, according to a UN investigation, was committed by the M23 and cost the lives of 131 civilians.
“Troop reinforcements for specific operations”
According to the think tank, the Rwandan army launched these military operations to “reinforce the M23” and “against the FDLR (Forces Démocratiques de libération du Rwanda)”, a predominantly Hutu armed group founded by former leaders of the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. .
The existence and violence of this militia, presented as a threat by Kigali, have justified previous Rwandan interventions in Congolese territory.
According to this report, and as already mentioned in a confidential report from July, the Rwandan army has “provided troop reinforcements to the M23 for specific operations, in particular when these were aimed at the seizure of cities and strategic areas.”
The M23, an armed group with a Tutsi majority defeated in 2013, resumed arms at the end of last year and intensified its offensive in October, seizing wide swaths of territory north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.
with AFP
