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Saturday, 1 December 2012

Congo rebels complete pullout from eastern capital less than 2 weeks after taking control


Congo rebels complete pullout from eastern capital less than 2 weeks after taking control 

M23 rebels withdraw from the eastern Congo town of Goma, Saturday Dec. 1, 2012. Sy Koumbo, a spokesman for the U.N. in Congo, says that an agreement was reached late Friday with M23 rebels after they attempted to force their way into Goma's international airport to seize arms. Koumbo says U.N. peacekeepers blocked the fighters. Trucks full of M23 rebels drove Saturday along the road that leads out of Goma towards Kibumba, where the rebels are supposed to settle following an agreement reached in Kampala last week. M23 soldiers were cheering as they did a final tour in the city center.
 Published: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 01, 1:18 PM ET

GOMA, Congo — Rebels believed to be backed by Rwanda completed their retreat from Congo's eastern provincial capital on Saturday less than two weeks after taking control of the strategic city, a military official said.

The retreat, however, may be tentative after a leader for the M23 rebels said they now wanted to negotiate with the government within 48 hours.

Ugandan Brig. Jeffrey Muheesi, who is part of a mission sent by regional leaders to oversee the rebel retreat, said the rebels' pullout from Goma was complete.

"They have pulled out of Sake and Goma, and now Congolese government policemen are controlling the central bank, the governor's office and the border post," he said from the outskirts of Goma.

The M23 rebels took the capital of North Kivu on Nov. 20, after battling the Congolese army for nearly a day. The group had defied two earlier ultimatums to leave Goma, raising the possibility they did not intend to leave and giving credence to a U.N. report accusing Rwanda of using the rebels as a proxy to annex territory in the mineral-rich eastern Congo.

The eight-month-old M23 rebellion is led by fighters from a now-defunct rebel group, who agreed to lay down their arms on March 23, 2009, in return for being allowed to join the ranks of the Congolese army. M23 takes its name from the date of that accord, and the rebellion began in April, when hundreds of soldiers defected from the military, saying that the terms of the accord had not been respected.

In fact, most analysts believe the origin of the rebellion is a fight over Congo's vast mineral wealth, a good chunk of which is found in the North Kivu province where Goma is the capital. Starting this spring, the fighters seized a series of small towns and villages in North Kivu, culminating with the capture of Goma, a population hub of 1 million and a key, mineral trading post.

The regional bloc representing the nations bordering Congo had issued a Friday deadline for the M23 fighters to retreat from Goma, after the rebels had thumbed their nose at an earlier ultimatum. M23 rebels began retreating on Tuesday from the other territories they seized.

Trucks full of M23 soldiers were driving out of Goma this morning. A column of rebels on foot walked near the convoy, mirroring the column of fighters that first walked into the city a little less than two weeks ago. The rebels left in a matter of hours and in an orderly fashion, carrying rifles and ammunition. Some of the trucks also carried mattresses and even a generator.

"Now we are waiting for the negotiations, within 48 hours," said a leader of M23, Gen. Sultani Makenga, as he left Goma.

He said the rebels would wait for a cease-fire to be signed.

"If the government wants, we will come back," he said, adding that they'd do so through negotiations, or force if needed.

The rebels' withdrawal also comes after they attempted to force their way into Goma's international airport on Friday in order to seize arms belonging to the Congolese military.

"An agreement was reached yesterday over the ammunitions issue," said Sy Koumbo, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo. He said that U.N. peacekeepers had control of the airport and blocked the fighters from obtaining the arms.

But M23 leader Gen. Makenga said the matter had not been resolved.

"We decided to leave. We will get all this back, when our turn comes," he said.

Goma's residents have denounced the M23 rebels for looting several small shops and houses.

In the Majengo neighborhood, a shopworker said that fighters stole money, a phone, oil and alchohol. Other people said the M23 rebels were going door-to-door, looking for valuables to loot.

"At midnight, I heard my children screaming that someone wants to break the door," said a 65-year-old man who insisted on anonymity out of fear for his safety.

The rebels will settle in Kibati, a mere 15 kilometers ( 9 miles) from Goma in the coming days and 600 Congolese army soldiers will move into Goma alongside a neutral force made of troops from the countries that are a part of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.

___

Associated Press photographer Jerome Delay contributed to this report from Goma, Congo.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Le Rwanda tenterait un nouveau front vers le Sud-Kivu

Rwanda 'wanted new DR Congo rebel front'

 

Rwanda 'wanted new DR Congo rebel front'

Watch Gabriel Gatehouse's television report from Bukavu
Rwandan support for rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo may be more widespread than previously believed, the BBC has found.
Kigali has already rejected UN accusations that it is backing the M23 rebel group which recently captured the strategic eastern city of Goma.
Two ex-rebel fighters told the BBC they were offered money from Rwanda to set up a new front further south.
More than 500,000 people have fled seven months of fighting in the east.
Rwanda has previously backed armed groups in eastern DR Congo as a way of fighting Hutu militias who fled there after Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which some 800,000 people died.
The M23, who like Rwanda's leaders are mostly ethnic Tutsis, has also denied it is funded by Rwanda.
'Co-ordination order'

"Start Quote

Less than 20 years since the genocide, that apocalyptic event continues to a large extent to inform the Rwandan government's world view, from its intolerance of dissent at home, to its desire to exert some control over the chaos on its western border"
End Quote
BBC East Africa correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse spoke to two former rebel fighters in Bukavu, which lies on the southern tip of Lake Kivu, some 200km (125 miles) from Goma.
They were from DR Congo's minority Tutsi ethnic group and said they had joined the rebel Congolese Movement for Change in July to fight for a better life for the people of the east.
They had spent several months in the bush fighting the army, thinking they were part of a home-grown movement.
"Then our chairman of this movement came with a delegation of the government of Rwanda, saying that the movement has been changed, we have to follow the instructions of the Rwanda government," Capt Okra Rudahirwa told the BBC.
He said he and his men were given monthly supplies of cash - sometimes as much as $20,000 (£12,500) dollars, with which they bought food, uniforms and medicines.
His commander, Col Besftriend Ndozi, told the BBC they were also put in contact with a senior M23 commander, a Col Manzi, who urged them to co-ordinate their efforts.
Colonel Besftriend Ndozi Ex-rebel Bestfriend Ndozi said their orders were to 'demoralise the government'
"Manzi told us that the Rwandan army had given him the authority to support us and to command us. He ordered us to continue our fight, just as M23 were doing in the north, so that together we would demoralise the government," Col Ndozi said.
The men said they decided to abandon the fight once they realised the scale of Rwandan involvement.
The Rwandan government has declined to comment on the allegations.
But many of the details of this account, including dates and names of intermediaries, tally with separate research carried out by the UN, our correspondent says.
A recent report by UN experts said the M23's de facto chain of command culminated with Rwanda's defence minister.
Map
It also accused neighbouring Uganda of aiding the rebels.
Kampala has denied the allegations and has been mediating over the last week following the M23's capture of Goma.
Its military commander, Sultani Makenga, has said he will withdraw his forces to a 20km buffer zone around Goma in the coming days.
The group mutinied from the army in April, saying it was because a 2009 deal to end a previous uprising by a Tutsi militia had not been fulfilled.

RWANDA: AMAKURU Y'ICYUMWERU 01/12/2012.

AMAKURU Y'ICYUMWERU 01/12/2012.
 

Rwandan Rebels Vow to Continue Attacking Rwandan Defense Forces


Rwandan Rebels Vow to Continue Attacking Rwandan Defense Forces

Sources close to Rwandan rebels inform AfroAmerica Network that Rwandan rebels have vowed to continue attacking the Rwandan government Defense Forces (RDF) after they successfully launched attacks on the Rwandan army in Mutura, Northeastern Rwanda, on November 27, 2012.

The attack, first reported by AfroAmerica Network (see our article Rwandan Rebels Attack RDF in Mutura; UN Expresses Intention to Sanction Rwandan Leaders of November 27, 2012), surprised both the Rwandan military leaders and international observers and United Nations experts, who has suggested that the Rwandan rebels were a spent force.
According to the rebels and independent sources, the rebels surprised the Rwandan Defense forces troops stationed in Mutura about to deploy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) around 2:00 AM on NOvember 27, 2011. The rebels attacked into three columns, one blocking the road between Mukamira and Gisenyi to prevent reinforcements, another close to the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in an area known as Kabuhanga, whereas the last one attacked a military outpost in the village of Cyanzarwe. Given the long distance among the three areas, it appears the rebels had been inside Rwanda for a while and had very good coordination.

In the first wave of attacks, Rwandan rebels killed and wounded tens of Rwandan defense forces. The casualties in Rwandan government troops were confirmed by AfroAmerica Network sources within RDF. Heavy fighting ensued, sending population into hiding and pushing others to flee the area. Right before the combats, infiltrated rebels had warned the civilians to stay indoor, if and when they hear shootings.
Sources within the rebels say that after the fightings, they returned in undisclosed locations inside Rwanda. "We accomplished what we wanted and beyond our goals, " the sources added.
Asked about their specific goals, the sources said they cannot provide details at the moment, except saying that the goals included capturing advanced weapons and equipment owned by Rwandan Defense Forces and other logistics, which, according to the sources, were reached.
Asked whether they lost the 6 fighters as the Rwandan military and political leaders claimed, the rebels said that "in war, casualties are possible, but Rwandan Defense Forces military leaders know they are lying to the population."

"We are ready and determined. There is no more turning back," the rebel sources said. Whether it is bravado or real, the incoming days will tell.
For now, the rebel sources have vowed to continue the attacks on Rwandan Defense Forces. If this materializes, it may be another complication of an already chaotic situation in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

©2012 AfroAmerica Network. All Rights Reserved.

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-“The root cause of the Rwandan tragedy of 1994 is the long and past historical ethnic dominance of one minority ethnic group to the other majority ethnic group. Ignoring this reality is giving a black cheque for the Rwandan people’s future and deepening resentment, hostility and hatred between the two groups.”

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