Fierce fighting was on Tuesday reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after the M23 rebels took control of a key town in the troubled eastern province despite an agreement for the rebels to pull out of the country.
The fresh fighting, according to local media, came on a day that should have marked the start of the withdrawal of the militants from their positions, local leaders say.
According to a new timetable adopted by East African leaders at a peace meeting on February 17, all armed groups, including the M23, were to withdraw by March 30, at the end of a three-stage process that was to have started on February 28.
“But despite this umpteenth demand, the rebels have been advancing in Masisi and holding on to their positions in Rutshuru, territories to the west and north of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu,” a regional security spokesman told reporters on Wednesday.
“On Monday, they seized Mweso, some 100 km north of Goma, after taking control of Mushaki in recent days and briefly occupying the mining town of Rubaya. Heavy fighting continued on Tuesday about 30 km west of Goma.”
“The M23 is also occupying sections of the last passable road linking Goma to the rest of North Kivu. Three of the four roads that serve the city are now cut off by the M23 rebels.”
“The fourth, leading to South Kivu, collapsed due to rains in late 2022. This road, which borders Lake Kivu and leads to Bukavu, a hundred kilometers to the south, had allowed part of the army and the population to flee when the M23 took Goma in 2012,” he said.