More than 5,000 residents of the Congolese town of Kitshanga are confined to their homes after the arrival of the M23

Jan. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The more than 5,000 remaining residents of the Congolese town of Kitshanga, in the north-eastern province of North Kivu, have barricaded themselves in their homes and asked the government for urgent help to expel the March 23 Movement rebels ( M23) that took control of the city on Friday.

Residents have confirmed to Radio Okapi that Kitshanga is now a “ghost town” where schools, markets, shops, and local community radio stations remain closed.

The same sources have confirmed that 90 percent of the population of the city, of some 56,000 inhabitants in total, escaped from the town in the previous hours in the direction of Mwesso and another hundred managed to find refuge in a nearby base of the mission of United Nations in the African country. MONUSCO on Friday raised the number of refugees in its facilities to 450.

The rebels have camouflaged themselves among the population while the activity of the six medical centers has been suspended and all their personnel “have fled,” according to these sources. The guerrillas, now in civilian clothes, are looking for city officials to force them to resume their activities.

The Congolese authorities, who have denounced that the M23 did not proceed to complete its withdrawal on the dates set at the Luanda mini-summit -in which the presidents of the DRC and Rwanda, Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, respectively, participated- and launched operations in the area, have not yet ruled on the situation in Kitshanga.

For its part, MONUSCO condemned on Thursday “the military offensive of the M23 in the territory of Masisi” and estimated that 450 people, “including women and children”, have been displaced and have taken refuge in its base in Kitshanga.

“Our ‘blue helmets’, who physically protect them, have also provided immediate assistance in the form of tents, food, water and first aid,” he said in his account on the social network Twitter, where he asked the rebels to “cease all hostilities and withdraw from the occupied areas, in line with the ‘road map’ established in the final communiqué of the Luanda mini-summit”.

The rebel group on Thursday accused the DRC of “creating” chaos through the “externalization of the conflict” and has reiterated its allegations about the use of “mercenaries” by Kinshasa, while accusing MONUSCO of being the “pillar” of government forces and their allied militias.