North Kivu: meeting between the M23 and the FARDC

The March 23 movement (M23) indicates that it received representatives of the Congolese army, Monusco (United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo), those of the regional force and the Joint Mechanism for verification of the CIRGL (International Conference on the Great Lakes Region) in a strategic meeting in the territory of Nyiragongo. The venue lies in the Kibumba groupement in the province of North Kivu in the east of the DRC. The purpose of the meeting was to ease tensions between the protagonists. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The discussions occured on Monday, December 12 in Kibumba, a city located about twenty kilometers from the city of Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu. They were co-facilitated by General Jeff Nyagah, regional force commander, and Colonel Nzenze Imani of the M23.

In a statement, the M23 leadership “welcomes the efforts of regional leaders to peacefully resolve the ongoing conflict in the DRC”.

The rebel movement says it is waiting for a next meeting, the date of which has not yet been set.

This first meeting takes place six months after the capture of Bunagana, the border city with Uganda.

The Congolese government then excluded “any possibility of negotiating with the M23 which it considers a terrorist movement” .

Not long ago, on the sidelines of talks held in Nairobi, Kenya, the rebellion was not invited alongside other Congolese militias.

Kinshasa has always considered the M23 to be a Rwandan armed group, the main reason for the tensions between the two countries in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

The security situation remains confused in the territories of Rutshuru and Nyiragongo where the M23 is accused by the civil society in North Kivu of having executed more than 300 people in Kishishe and other localities.

Congolese authorities recently put the death toll at 272 and Monusco said it had counted 131 people killed.

At a time when the Congolese minister in charge of justice has already seized the ICC (International Criminal Court) on this case, charging Rwanda in the same way as the rebels, the former Tutsi rebellion which took up arms late in 2021 accusing the Congolese authorities for not having respected its commitments on the reintegration of its fighters, has continued to “request an independent investigation” recognizing the death of only 8 civilians, killed by stray bullets according to it.

An M23 spokesman recently told SOS Médias Burundi that “the other individuals killed are Mai-Mai and FDLR militiamen and FARDC soldiers who fell on the battlefield”, insisting that “if they are civilians killed, let them give their identity, show the place where they lived and their family”.