Congo Rebels Accuse Government of Ceasefire Violations

Democratic Republic of Congo Defence Forces gather in the North Kivu province village of Mukondi on March 9, 2023. Socrate Mumbere/AP Photo

A prominent rebel group in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) says it’s withdrawing from some key territories it had seized, amid what the armed group terms the government’s “umpteenth violation” of a ceasefire that the M23 rebels unilaterally declared on March 7.

The group ceded the territory to the East African Community Regional Force, which was deployed to try to end bloodshed between the rebels and the government.

Before announcing its plans to withdraw, a spokesman for the rebels accused the government coalition of using United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) bases to fire on its positions and populated areas that include Mushaki, Karuba, and Malehe.

“The United Nations should condemn and discourage the DRC Government Coalition from using its bases, which expose UN personnel and assets to risks of collateral [damage],” spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a March 9 statement. "In addition, these attacks are causing the deaths and displacement of the targeted innocent civilian population.

“This new trend of using MONUSCO and its facilities as the shield for the DRC Government Coalition is in total violation of the law of armed conflict and the current ceasefire.”

Democratic Republic of Congo Defense Forces gather in the village of Mukondi in North Kivu province on March 9, 2023. Socrate Mumbere/AP Photo

Congo has been unstable since the 1960s, and the revolt by the M23 in the eastern part of the country remains one of the major festering security challenges confronting the country.

At least 6 million people have died in the conflict in the eastern part of the DRC since 1996, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in world history.

The conflict has also displaced more than 5 million Congolese, engendering a cycle of poverty and militarization.

Fighting has been fueled by ethnic and geopolitical competition among DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, and various non-state armed groups.

The M23 was formed by some former members of a Tutsi militia group known as the National Congress for the Defense of the People.

It’s largely believed that the M23 has been receiving financial and material support from Rwanda, although that government has been quick to deny such allegations.

Since the Rwandan Genocide of 1993–1994, eastern DRC has been plagued by fighting among a variety of armed factions—factions that represent different ethnic and religious groups.

The genocide fueled much of the current conflict, as perpetrators as well as victims fled Rwanda at different times, leading to large refugee populations inhabiting eastern DRC to this day.

These refugee populations reacted to a lack of strong governance in this remote section of DRC by building militias.

A burnt-out car after a protest in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Sept. 19, 2016. John Bompengo/AP Photo

DRC’s government has neither been able to solve the governance issue of the border region nor control the numerous ethnic and tribal tensions that have resulted from this large refugee movement.

“Three types of armed groups are present in eastern Congo—local groups anchored in their communities; foreign armed groups; and armed groups with transnational dimensions," Josaphat Musamba, a Congolese doctoral researcher at Ghent University (Belgium) based in the eastern DRC city of Bukavu, told The Epoch Times in an email.

The M23 combatants have transnational ties related to Rwandan ethnic communities—especially the Tutsi; RED-Tabara combatants have transnational ties related to the Burundi ethnic group; and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) are an armed rebel group active in eastern DRC.

Musamba, who also works on a project called “The Social Anthropology of Security Practices and Conflict Dynamics in Central African Civil Wars,” said that apart from hosting the M23 (also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army), two DRC provinces also harbor the Allied Democratic Forces and the ISIS-linked MTM militant groups.

“While the reasons for justification are many, other rebellions justify their presence with anti-Tutsi hatred and Tutsi conspiracy speech in eastern Congo,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Many alternately control certain territories with state forces—some are together with state forces [and] share positions in certain areas.

“It is difficult to measure them because sometimes they change headquarters or control centers as the Congolese army militiamen hunt them down and kill them.

“But they [also] completely control some spaces where military or police authority is absent.”

The governments of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi have supported the different groups at various points, acting as proxies for each state’s interests in the region.

Rwanda has been accused of supporting M23 by DRC officials; Rwanda accuses Uganda, DRC, and Burundi of supporting the FDLR; Burundi accuses Rwanda of supporting RED-Tabara; while Uganda accuses Rwanda of supporting the Allied Democratic Forces.

M23’s Alleged War Crimes

Members of the M23 rebel group allegedly killed at least 20 men and raped scores of women and girls in the eastern DRC between Nov. 21 and 30, 2022, according to rights group Amnesty International’s findings published in February 2023.

Survivors have since been living in terror and utter destitution, according to the NGO, which states that the atrocities amount to war crimes and could constitute crimes against humanity.

“The situation remains volatile with sporadic fighting in the area, including Congolese army’s shelling—there is still no humanitarian access except for Doctors Without Borders, which has limited interventions,” Jean-Mobert Senga, Amnesty International’s DRC researcher who led the investigations, told The Epoch Times.

He said the M23 has denied committing any crime.

The M23 captured Bambo on Nov. 21, 2022—followed the next day by Kishishe. The rebels then pursued rival groups including the FDLR in an area called Domaine. But FDLR and other militias managed to reoccupy Kishishe which had no M23 fighters. FDLR and Mai Mai militia staged ambushes and killed a number of M23 fighters.

“On Nov. 29, M23 fighters re-attacked Kishishe. That’s when most of the crimes were committed—in clear reprisal against the local population which they accused of colluding with FDLR/Mai Mai,” Senga told The Epoch Times.

Amnesty has been monitoring the conflict and documenting human rights abuses in the DRC for decades, including those committed by M23 and other armed groups.

“When allegations of mass killings in Kishishe and Bambo villages broke in late November 2022, we tried to gather information on these claims and soon realized it was difficult without direct access to the area,” Senga said.

“As we continued to dig, we started getting consistent information about sexual violence at a massive scale and decided to focus on the same.

“In mid-December, we managed to send a team of investigators to the ground to carry out first-hand interviews with people including victims and eyewitnesses ... and carried out additional phone interviews with various actors and officials from Nairobi.

“In total, we spoke with at least 35 people including 23 rape survivors.”

Dr. Oluwole Ojewale, ENACT’s regional organized crime observatory coordinator for Central Africa at the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar, told The Epoch Times that atrocities such as those committed in eastern DRC “are difficult to prevent” without the military might of a country’s army.

“The international community would have to step in to lessen the plight of civilians in that region now,” he said.

He also said that world leaders should give as much support to the region as to Ukraine:

“It’s about our common humanity. Life in Kyiv isn’t more sacred than another life in Kivu.

“Resolving the crisis won’t come through piecemeal negotiation on the part of regional communities. The African Union and the United Nations must step in fully and demonstrate commitment.”

Ojewale also laments that the DRC is torn by war today because of its rich mineral wealth, which is at the heart of the conflict.

“The DRC is too strategic for the ongoing global energy transition, particularly with respect to the country’s endowment of cobalt and coltan. So, the conflict essentially is about who controls access to those rich mines,” he said.

According to Ojewale, there are two principal reasons the DRC is unable to defeat the M23.

One, the state lacks the political will to do so because the conflict is deeply political and can be resolved only at the negotiating table, and two, the DRC government either lacks “the military firepower“ or hasn’t demonstrated it sufficiently to ”quell the resurgent M23 and other armed groups.”