The rebels backed by Rwanda arrived at the center of the second largest city in East Congo, Bukavu, on Sunday morning and took control of the administrative office of the province of Kivu del Sur after little resistance of the government forces, many of which they fled the advance of the rebels.
Associated Press’s journalists witnessed dozens of residents who cheered the M23 rebels in the center of Bukavu on Sunday morning while walking and driving through the city center after a one -day march from the main city of The 63 -mile rubber region, which captured at the end of last month. Several parts of the city, however, remained deserted with interior residents.
The M23 rebels are the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups that compete for the control of the east rich in the east of Congo, and are supported by some 4,000 troops of neighboring Rwanda, according to the UN
It was not clear if the rebels had taken a decisive control of the city of approximately 1.3 million people. His presence in the center of Bukavu is an unprecedented expansion of the scope of the rebels in their struggle of years with Congolese forces. Unlike 2012, when they only confiscated rubber in the struggle related to ethnic tension, analysts have said that the rebels are considering political power.
On Saturday, many Congolese soldiers were fleeing from the progress of the rebels to Bukavu with thousands of civilians in the midst of widespread looting and panic.
The president of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, held a security meeting in the distant capital of Kinshas The presidency said in X. There was there. There are no signs of fighting or Congoleña forces in most Bukavu’s parts on Sunday.
Tshisekedi warned about the risk of a regional expansion of the conflict. Congo’s forces are being supported by Bukavu by Burundi troops and rubber for South Africa troops.
The president of Burundi, Evariste Undayishimiye, seemed to suggest that his country will not retaliate in the fighting. In a publication about X, he said that “those people who were ready to make profits from the armed attack by Rwanda to Burundi will not see this.”
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that includes M23, said he was committed to “defending Bukavu people” in a Saturday statement that did not recognize his presence in the city. “We call on the population to keep control of their city and not give in to panic,” said Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesman for the Alliance, in a statement.
The fight in Congo has connections with an ethnic conflict of decades. M23 says that ethnic tutsis is defending in the Congo. Rwanda has affirmed that the tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and the former militias responsible for the genocide of 800,000 tutsis of 1994 and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled the Congo after the genocide and founded the democratic forces for the liberation of the Rwanda militia group. Ruanda says that the group is “completely integrated” in the Congolese army, which denies the charges.
