4 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has sentenced 25 soldiers to death accused of abandoning their positions during fighting with the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group in the eastern province of the African country.
The soldiers were accused of fleeing clashes that broke out last week in the towns of Kaseghe and Matembe and of taking ammunition with them, as well as carrying out acts of looting, the Congolese news portal Actualité reported.
Mbuyi Kalonji, one of the army’s spokesmen in the area, said that “since the beginning of the hearings, no other soldier has participated in acts of abandoning the lines.” “We believe that the decision will help the proper implementation of the operations,” he said.
The M23 took control of the town of Kanyabayonga last week as part of its advances in North Kivu, after the DRC Prime Minister, Judith Suminwa, rejected any kind of dialogue with Rwanda, accused of supporting the rebels, given that Kinshasa does not want to hold talks with “the aggressors.”
The M23 is a rebel group made up mainly of Congolese Tutsis and operates mainly in the province. Following a conflict between the DRC and the group from 2012 to 2013, a peace agreement was signed in December between the DRC and the group. In the fighting, the Congolese army was supported by UN troops.
The group launched a new offensive in October 2022, which intensified from November, triggering a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and Rwanda over its role in the conflict. Kigali has accused Kinshasa of supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed rebel group founded and composed mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
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