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- Rebels and troopers clashed once more in jap DRC on Thursday.
- The M23 rebels stated they weren’t sure by a ceasefire settlement made between Congolese and Rwandan presidents.
- Beforehand, the DRC accused Rwanda of supporting M23
Recent clashes between Congolese Revolutionary Military (M23) rebels and troopers erupted in jap DR Congo on Thursday, officers stated, because the militia declared that it was not sure by a ceasefire settlement.
M23 spokesman Willy Ngoma instructed AFP that the deal brokered between the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Angola on Wednesday was irrelevant.
He stated:
We’re Congolese, not Rwandan. If there is a ceasefire, it may well solely be between us and the Congolese authorities.
Talks between the Democratic Republic of Congo’s chief Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame in Angola on Wednesday initially raised the prospect of a ceasefire between the M23 and the Congolese authorities.
Violence between the principally Congolese Tutsi rebels and the DRC’s military has flared in current weeks.
The DRC has repeatedly accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing the M23, a cost the small central African nation has at all times denied.
The M23’s announcement on Thursday that it isn’t sure by the ceasefire, got here after clashes between its fighters and Congolese troops broke out in Rutshuru territory in Congo’s jap North Kivu province within the morning.
A Congolese military commander accused the rebels of attacking navy positions within the space in violation of the ceasefire. Nevertheless, the M23 denied the declare and accused the military of beginning hostilities.
The M23 or March 23 Motion, first leapt to prominence when it briefly captured the jap Congolese metropolis of Goma in 2012 earlier than it was pushed out in a joint UN-Congolese offensive.
After laying principally dormant for years, the group resumed combating final November after accusing the Congolese authorities of failing to honour an settlement to include its fighters into the military, amongst different points.
Fierce combating has seen the rebels make vital advances in jap Congo. Final month, M23 fighters captured the strategic city of Bunagana on the Congolese-Ugandan border.
M23 clashes have plunged relations between the DRC and Rwanda to its lowest level in years.
The connection between the 2 international locations had already lengthy been strained for the reason that mass arrival within the jap DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis in the course of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Each international locations have in current weeks accused the opposite of finishing up cross-border shelling, triggering worldwide appeals for calm.
ALSO READ | Kagame says he’s ‘ready for the worst’ if there isn’t any answer to DRC standoff
On Wednesday, Tshisekedi met Kagame within the Angolan capital Luanda for talks mediated by Angolan President Joao Lourenco on the request of the African Union.
“We have now agreed on a ceasefire, amongst different measures,” Lourenco stated on the finish of the mini-summit.
The DRC and Rwanda agreed amongst different issues to a “roadmap” in direction of normalising diplomatic ties, together with by way of ending hostilities involving the M23 and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.
The huge mineral-rich DRC is struggling to include dozens of armed teams in its risky east, a lot of that are a legacy of two regional wars 1 / 4 of a century in the past.
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