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.
“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.”
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.
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 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.
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.
“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.”
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.
“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.”
“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.”