Minembwe : several deaths in the hostilities between the FARDC and Twirwaneho

Violent fighting broke out between the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and the Twirwaneho armed group. They took place in Minembwe in the province of South Kivu, in eastern Congo, from Wednesday to Thursday. Both sides lost several men, according to our sources.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

At least 11 fighters from this armed group composed of members of the Banyamulenge community and more than 15 Congolese soldiers were killed during these clashes that lasted two days.

It all started on Wednesday when the Congolese army launched assaults on Twirwaneho posts located in different villages of Minembwe, a groupment of villages located in the territory of Fizi.

The local civil society speaks of long-planned attacks.

“Several residents fled combat zones and went to localities considered more secure,” say residents. In addition to the FARDC elements and Twirwaneho fighters killed, the civil society in Minembwe deplores the death of a teenage girl.

“Florence Mutunzi, 16 years old, was killed in an explosion of a FARDC bomb,” it accuses. The victim’s father is the chief of the locality of Kabingo, according to our sources.

Residents lament that “the Congolese army chose Christmas Day to launch these long-planned attacks in an area where Christian children and women were either in churches or going there to celebrate the nativity.”

Twirwaneho fighters control many areas in Minembwe and occupy the Kalingi-Mikenge section, which the FARDC wants to prevent.

A family member of a Twirwaneho fighter who died in these clashes told SOS Médias Burundi on Thursday evening that “we have lost several compatriots.”

There was no official statement from the belligerents regarding their losses.

In this part of the vast Central African country, just as in the war against the M23 in the neighboring province of North Kivu, the FARDC is supported by the Burundian army, the FDNB (Burundi National Defense Force) and local militias maintained by Congolese authorities including the Mai-Mai.

Local sources told SOS Médias Burundi that Mai-Mai militiamen took advantage of this fighting to go and “attack the village of Kawela”, about ten kilometers from the center of Minembwe.
“They looted cows there”. Kawela is inhabited by Banyamulenge families.

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The center of Minembwe not far from where the fighting took place (SOS Médias Burundi)