18 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The regional force of the East African Community (EAC, according to its acronym in English) in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has indicated that the ceasefire in the east of the country a month ago has “significantly increased” the withdrawal of the rebel March 23 Movement (M23).
“The EACRF has registered a month of ceasefire between the parties to the conflict in the eastern DRC,” said the commander of the force, the Kenyan Jeff Nyagah, who stressed that “the ceasefire has significantly increased the withdrawal of the M23 from the areas they occupy”, according to a message from the mission on its account on the social network Twitter.
The spokesman for the rebel group, Willy Ngoma, has indicated in statements given to the British television channel BBC that the group’s militiamen are moving to areas marked for the M23 as part of the peace process mediated by various regional leaders.
The group has stated on several occasions that it will only agree to disarm after a dialogue process with the Congolese authorities, although the president of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi, has ruled out this possibility, so there are doubts about the viability of the ceasefire and the possibility of resulting in a lasting peace.
The M23 is a rebel group made up mainly of Congolese Tutsis and operating mainly in the North Kivu province. Following a conflict between 2012 and 2013, the RDC and the group signed a peace agreement in December. In these combats, the DRC Army had the support of United Nations troops.
The group launched a new offensive in October 2022, intensified as of November, which has caused a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and Rwanda over their role in the conflict. Kigali accuses Kinshasa of supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel armed group founded and made up mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and has denounced discrimination and acts of hate against the Tutsi minority in the neighboring country.
