Masisi: timid resumption of activities in Rubaya

A few businesses reopened this Tuesday and Wednesday, in the mining town of Rubaya in the territory of Masisi in the province of North Kivu (eastern DRC), after the entity was briefly captured by the M23. The rebel group was chased from there by local armed groups calling themselves self-defense movements. Residents say they are not sure that the calm will last. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The businesses that reopened are just some few kiosks, shops and stores.

“They opened their door without hoping to experience again the immense atmosphere of the city which spent a night under the control of elements of the M23”, say local sources.

After intense fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 until last Sunday, several inhabitants took refuge in neighboring villages, others towards the center of Masisi.

Residents who fled the hostilities return timidly without hope that the calm will last.

“We fear a return of the M23 rebels to Rubaya”, they are concerned while specifying that the outskirts of Rubaya remain under high tension of insecurity.

Since the capture of the locality of Mushaki, one of the strategic places of the territory of Masisi, several areas are fearing to be the target of the M23.

This rebel group controls almost all the territory of Rutshuru, a large part of Masisi and some localities in Nyiragongo. It set up a parallel administration, in the captured areas, including on the border between the DRC and Uganda in the city of Bunagana which fell into the hands of the rebels in mid-June 2022.

The former Tutsi rebellion which took up arms again at the end of 2021 accusing the Congolese authorities of not having respected its commitments on the reintegration of its fighters is supported by Rwanda, according to the Congolese authorities. Allegations denied by the Rwandan government. The crisis in eastern Congo, which was lately evoked in almost all official events in Rwanda, is likely to dominate President Kagame’s press conference on Wednesday.