Goma – praag.org

DRC shrugs off German mercenaries fighting for M23

The Democratic Republic of the Congo military has warned that any aggressor would be met with force and added that it was untroubled by German and other mercenaries.

M23 rebels have issued a warning to the Congolese government that they would resume fighting to take control of the troubled east if the government does not start negotiations immediately.

Congolese troops backed by the UN Intervention Brigade including South African troops have taken up positions abandoned by M23 rebels in the hills overlooking the eastern town of Goma.

This happened after the rebels withdrew on Friday.

Meanwhile, Rwanda has denied accusations from the UN of helping the rebel group.

DRC military spokesperson Colonel Amuli Olivier said: “If Rwanda helps M23, Congo doesn’t care, because we know they have mercenaries from Germany, from Eritrea, from Uganda. The most important thing for Congo is to say whoever takes arms against Congo, will always face the full force of the army and the army’s objective is to secure Congolese borders and its civilians.”

The rebels have demanded the government to return to the negotiating table saying “if the Congolese government pushes on with the military option to the detriment of the Kampala talks, our armed forces reserve the right to re-take control (of Goma positions).”

Over the past week several peacekeepers have been injured in clashes among them, three South Africans.

M23’s political leader, Bertrand Bisimwa wrote a letter to South Africa earlier, asking them not to come and “kill their brothers”. He cautioned them that they are going to face similar treatment to the one they received when facing Seleka rebels in the Central African Republic (CAR) who killed 13 South African soldiers.

“If they (the South Africans) think they will go out into the hills and annihilate M23, they’re crazy,” Bisimwa said, adding: “If an army goes in, when it does not know the terrain or the politics is overconfident and is itself not combat equipped for these kind of operations, they’re going to be kicked. If South African special forces could not keep Seleka at bay – not nearly as coherent a target as M23 – how are they going to defeat M23, which are in their own back yard?”

South Africa is deploying more than 1000 troops in the DRC. Tons of weaponry, including helicopters, were flown in huge cargo planes from South Africa to Entebbe in Uganda, close to the Congolese border, where SA forces are expected to be based. The rebel group accuses Zuma of sending his troops to the DRC to protect his nephew Khulubuse’s oil interests.

South Africa may be badly underestimating the strength of the M23-rebels.

M23 rebels have grenade-launchers and a 37mm double barrelled aircraft defence cannon from the Congolese defence forces. A source inside the SA army admitted that there could be ‘loss of lives’ among the South Africans because the rebels know the terrain better.

The South African troops are part of a multilateral regional force, which includes the armies of Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania, with the blessing of the UN Security Council which passed Resolution 2098 on March 28, 2013.

M23 claims the resolution transformed the UN peace keepers in a belligerent force, entrusted with offensive mission. The UN security council thus authorised an “intervention brigade” to allow “neutralisation of armed groups in the east of the DRC.” This decision was in sharp deviation of the UN’s historic peace mandate in the Congo, who in the past only had a mandate to ‘protect’ the area.

UN Security Council unanimously approved the creation of a brigade of more than 2,500 troops with a mandate to conduct “targeted offensive operations” against M23. The new UN force is to consist of three infantry battalions, an artillery company, a reconnaissance company and “special forces.”

It marked the first time that UN peacekeepers were given a mandate to conduct offensive operations, marking a dramatic change from the UN’s peace mandate in the past, which only allowed soldiers to shoot back when they were being shot at.

M23 says the UN is, in effect, coming to the “rescue of one of the most corrupt regimes in the world and will contribute to extending the reign of an army that is infamous for rampant rape and other atrocities that it wantonly and habitually inflicts on the Congolese population.”

The irony of Resolution 2098, is the UN Secretary General’s own words stating that corruption is the main cause of the failure of the DRC Government.

Sources say army officers take advantage of agricultural and mineral wealth, and set up taxes and roadblocks in the area. “The rationale for the presence of soldiers is ostensibly to protect people from rebellions. Unless they get rich on the backs of the same people, they have no interest in stopping the war.”

Some observers even argue that a part of the army is in the hands of Tutsis. More than nine generals out of thirty are said to be Tutsi Congolese. The M23, backed by Rwanda, want an independent state, Tutsiland.

Fighting rages outside Goma

Fresh fighting raged Thursday outside the flashpoint city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the M23 rebels and regular army said, blaming each other for the new hostilities.

An army officer said rebels had attacked government-held positions on Wednesday night 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the capital of North Kivu province, sparking clashes with heavy weaponry that continued into Thursday.

The territory, near the villages of Mutaho and Kibati, has been in government hands since mid-July, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

M23 intelligence officer Modeste Bahati confirmed the renewed fighting but blamed the army for starting it by attacking rebel positions around Kibati.

“Our forces are holding their positions,” he told AFP.

The rebels accused the army of wanting to “broaden” an offensive against them.

“The absurd war relaunched by the Congolese government appears to be an outburst of anger after the failure of military-style diplomacy in these past weeks,” the movement’s spokesman Amani Kabasha said in a statement.

Kabasha accused the army of breaching “recent recommendations by the UN Security Council, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, and the SADC (Southern African Development Community) for the resumption of peace talks.”

Both sides said they were not yet able to say how many people had been killed or wounded.

The rebellion by the M23, a movement launched by Tutsi ex-soldiers who mutinied from the army in April 2012, is the latest insurgency to ravage the vast central African country’s mineral-rich but conflict-torn east.

The rebels, estimated to number about 1000, have been active in North Kivu province since May 2012. Founded by members of a previous rebel group integrated into the military under a 2009 peace deal, they left the army because they accused the government of failing to abide by the terms of the agreement.

The M23 occupied Goma – a city of about one million people and the hub around which most of the fighting has revolved for 10 days in November 2012 before withdrawing under international pressure.

The latest bout of fighting, which erupted in mid-July and has flared up periodically ever since, ended an almost two-month truce reached in May when UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited the region. – Sapa/AFP

SANDF readies to fight M23

Hundreds of South African soldiers deployed to the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are likely to be involved in violent clashes with thousands of battle-hardened rebels.

The UN has given the M23 rebels 48 hours to demobilise and surrender their weapons. The deadline expires today and if the rebels fail to meet it the UN intervention force of which the South Africans are a part will move in to forcibly disarm them.

About 900 South African soldiers from the SANDF’s 6 Infantry Battalion are deployed in and around the town of Goma as part of the UN’s intervention brigade.

Tens of thousands of civilians are said to be fleeing from war-ravaged Goma in anticipation of the blood-letting likely to come.

The South African troops are trained to deploy into battle zones from helicopters.

The brigade was formed to engage and attack the M23 rebels terrorising the region, allegedly with the backing of the Rwandan government and military.

The brigade, which also has troops from Malawi and Tanzania, will from today attempt to disarm the M23 rebels, an action they say they will oppose.

There is growing concern that there will be a repeat of the killing of South African soldiers as in the Central African Republic earlier this year. Dozens of SANDF soldiers were wounded and 15 killed in clashes between South African paratroops and Seleka rebels in March.

SANDF spokesman Brigadier-General Xolani Mabanga said: “We have competent troops with the equipment necessary to carry out their tasks.”

But Mabanga admitted that not all the troops were in place.

“As to when this will happen it is difficult to say … It is a highly sensitive operation, not only involving us.”

Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Andre Roux said: “The [South Africans] underwent three months of combat-readiness training and two months of mission-readiness training, and are now training intensively for combat operations.

“Deployed with specialist weapons capabilities, such as heavy machine guns and armoured vehicles, the troops are a very capable fighting force that can defeat the rebels.” – timeslive.co.za

Rebels in Congo seize Goma, airport

A rebel group believed to be backed by Rwanda seized the strategic, provincial capital of Goma in eastern Congo on Tuesday, home to more than 1 million people as well as an international airport in a development that threatens to spark a new, regional war, officials and witnesses said.

Explosions and machine-gun fire rocked the lakeside city as the M23 rebels pushed forward on two fronts: toward the city center and along the road that leads to Bukavu, another provincial capital which lies to the south. Civilians ran down sidewalks looking for cover and children shouted in alarm. A man clutched a thermos as he ran.

Thousands of residents fled across the border to Rwanda, the much-smaller nation to the east which is accused of funneling arms and recruits to the M23 rebels.

By early afternoon the gunfire had stopped and M23 soldiers marched down the potholed main boulevards, unimpeded. Their senior commanders, who the United Nations has accused of grave crimes including recruiting child soldiers, summary executions and rape, paraded around the town in all-terrain vehicles, waving to the thousands of people who left their barricaded houses to see them.

The United Nations peacekeepers, known by their acronym MONUSCO, were not helping the government forces during Tuesday’s battle because they do not have a mandate to engage the rebels, said Congolese military spokesman Olivier Hamuli, who expressed frustration over the lack of action by the peacekeepers.

“MONUSCO is keeping its defensive positions. They do not have the mandate to fight the M23. Unfortunately, the M23 did not obey the MONUSCO warnings and went past their positions (at the airport). We ask that the MONUSCO do more,” he said.

A U.N. spokesman said in New York said that the nearly 1,500 U.N. peacekeepers in Goma held their fire to avoid triggering a battle. The peacekeepers “cannot substitute for the efforts of national forces” in Congo, said spokesman Eduardo del Buey.

On Wednesday the Security Council will review the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo. A resolution adopted Tuesday by the Security Council asks the U.N. secretary-general to recommend possible redeployment, and possible “additional force multipliers.”

The resolution approved unanimously by the council imposes targeted sanctions, including a travel ban and assets freeze on the M23 rebel group leadership. But it did not name two countries accused by Congo of supporting the rebels: Rwanda and Uganda.

The council demanded that the M23 rebels withdraw from Goma, disarm and disband, and insisted on the restoration of the crumbing Congolese government authority in the country’s turbulent East.

The resolution also calls for an immediate end to external support to the rebels and asks the U.N. secretary-general to report on the allegations of foreign support while expressing its readiness to take appropriate measures.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday that the mandate of the U.N. forces in Congo “must be reviewed.” Speaking in Paris, he said it is “absurd” that the U.N. has 17,000 peacekeepers in all of Congo but they “couldn’t stop several hundred men” in Goma.

The French minister also said a rapprochement between Congo and Rwanda was critical to solving the crisis. Fabius said he’s been in touch with officials in both countries.

The rebels are believed to be backed by Rwanda, and to a smaller extent by Uganda, which are accused of equipping them with sophisticated arms, including night vision goggles and 120 mm mortars. Evidence is mounting of the involvement by the neighboring country and on Friday, the United Nations Group of Experts is expected to release its final report, detailing the role the neighboring nations played in the recruitment, financing and arming of the rebel movement, which was born in April.

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende said that Rwandan soldiers had crossed into Goma, hiking over footpaths across a volcano that looms between the two countries.

“Goma is in the process of being occupied by Rwanda,” said Mende, speaking from Congo’s distant capital of Kinshasa. “We have people who saw the Rwandan army traverse our frontier at the Nyamuragira volcano. They have occupied the airport and they are shooting inside the town. Our army is trying to riposte but this poses an enormous problem for them -this is an urban center where hundreds of thousands of people live,” he said.

A Congolese colonel, who was at the frontline in Goma before the city fell, said that the soldiers he saw were Rwandan. Neither his claim nor Mende’s could be independently verified.

Congo’s President Joseph Kabila flew to Uganda Tuesday for talks with President Yoweri Museveni, a Ugandan government spokesman confirmed. The official spoke in Kampala on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge the information.

M23 rebel spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama confirmed that they had taken the airport and the city. “We are now inside the city of Goma,” he said.

Goma, a city of low-lying buildings, many topped by rusted corrugated roofs, was last threatened by rebels in 2008 when fighters from the now-defunct National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, stopped just short of the city. Their backs to the wall, the Congolese government agreed to enter into talks with the CNDP and a year later, on March 23, 2009, a peace deal was negotiated calling for the CNDP to put down their arms in return for being integrated into the national army.

The peace deal fell apart this April, when up to 700 soldiers, most of them ex-CNDP members, defected from the army, claiming that the Congolese government had failed to uphold their end of the deal. Like in 2008, they again advanced toward Goma. This time, the city fell and the disastrous consequences for the population were already on display.

At a municipal hospital, 19-year-old Nene Lumbulumbu described how she was cleaning her house, when she was hit by a stray bullet in the torso. A father stood over his little girl’s bed, clutching an X-ray showing the bullet lodged in her chest. He had sent her to fetch water in this city where most live without running water. She was brought back by neighbors, after being hit by a bullet.

The hospital was treating children whose arms were sheared off by exploding shells, and teenagers paralyzed from the neck down. Hospital director Justin Lussy said the injuries were just the tip of the iceberg.

“Regional and international actors must now prevent this turning into a new regional war,” said the International Crisis Group in a statement. “The past week has shown history repeating itself in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with the same tragic consequences for civilians in the region.”

If the rebels succeed in taking Bukavu, it will mark the biggest gain in rebel territory since at least 2003, when Congo’s last war with its neighbors, including Rwanda and Uganda, ended.

Jean-Claude Bampa, who lives near the road to Sake, the first town on the drive to Bukavu, spoke on the telephone over loud gunfire in the background. “I can hear gunshots everywhere, it is all around my home,” he said on Tuesday morning. “We are stuck inside and are terrified. I pray this will be over soon.” – AFP