"Congo leader says Rwanda aids revolt" Associated Press, July 30, 2012
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Congo’s president accused Rwanda of backing a new rebellion in Congo’s east and called their support an open secret.
President Joseph Kabila told journalists late Saturday that the government will investigate accusations that Uganda may also be backing the M23 rebellion in the east, though the country said it was not involved.
The uprising has brought the worst violence in years to the already volatile Congo. It has forced more than 260,000 people from their homes in the past three months, and it is draining the resources of an already overstretched $1.5 billion-a-year UN peacekeeping mission in Congo....
A report by UN experts last month accused Rwanda of helping create, arm, and support the M23 rebel movement in violation of UN sanctions. Rwanda denies the charges.
Rwanda has come under increasing pressure, however, to halt the alleged support with the Netherlands, United States, and Germany suspending some aid and Britain delaying a payment for budgetary support.
While the amounts involved are small, the actions are considered a major rebuke of Rwanda, a darling of Western donors dependent on aid for nearly half its budget.
Congo’s president admitted the army has lost some territories to the rebels, but said they will recover other localities and the major objective is to restore lasting peace in the east.
‘‘There are several possible solutions to end the crisis, political, diplomatic or military,’’ he said.
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Related: Praise, protests in Boston greet Rwandan president
"Rwandan opposition leader sentenced to 8 years" Associated Press, October 31, 2012
Why?
KIGALI, Rwanda — Genocide denial....
Related: Rhode Island Will Always Remember
She asked why Hutus killed in the violence were not recognized like the minority Tutsis were....
See: Eisenhower's Holocaust
More than 500,000 Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. In the wake of that violence, the government set out to deemphasize ethnicity. Many in the country now identify themselves simply as a Rwandan, not a Hutu or Tutsi....
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President Joseph Kabila told journalists late Saturday that the government will investigate accusations that Uganda may also be backing the M23 rebellion in the east, though the country said it was not involved.
The uprising has brought the worst violence in years to the already volatile Congo. It has forced more than 260,000 people from their homes in the past three months, and it is draining the resources of an already overstretched $1.5 billion-a-year UN peacekeeping mission in Congo....
A report by UN experts last month accused Rwanda of helping create, arm, and support the M23 rebel movement in violation of UN sanctions. Rwanda denies the charges.
Rwanda has come under increasing pressure, however, to halt the alleged support with the Netherlands, United States, and Germany suspending some aid and Britain delaying a payment for budgetary support.
While the amounts involved are small, the actions are considered a major rebuke of Rwanda, a darling of Western donors dependent on aid for nearly half its budget.
Congo’s president admitted the army has lost some territories to the rebels, but said they will recover other localities and the major objective is to restore lasting peace in the east.
‘‘There are several possible solutions to end the crisis, political, diplomatic or military,’’ he said.
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Related: Praise, protests in Boston greet Rwandan president
"Rwandan opposition leader sentenced to 8 years" Associated Press, October 31, 2012
Why?
KIGALI, Rwanda — Genocide denial....
Related: Rhode Island Will Always Remember
She asked why Hutus killed in the violence were not recognized like the minority Tutsis were....
See: Eisenhower's Holocaust
More than 500,000 Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. In the wake of that violence, the government set out to deemphasize ethnicity. Many in the country now identify themselves simply as a Rwandan, not a Hutu or Tutsi....
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"Oxfam says hundreds being killed in east Congo" by Michelle Faul and Rodney Muhumuza | Associated Press, August 08, 2012
GOMA, Congo — With Congo’s army diverted to fighting a new rebel group in eastern Congo, new militia groups have arisen and older ones are reasserting themselves, killing hundreds of defenseless civilians, the British charity Oxfam said Tuesday.
Underscoring the severity of the situation, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos arrived in Goma on Tuesday and is to visit some of the 280,000 people who have fled their homes since mutinying soldiers launched the M23 rebellion in April. But security is so poor that Amos was forced to cancel planned trips to the mining town of Walikale and the seat of the rebellion in Rutshuru, 50 miles north of Goma.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
As the 150,000-strong Congolese army and 20,000 UN peacekeepers have redeployed against M23 rebels in North Kivu province, fighting has spread to villages and towns, with the combatants often aiming to gain control of mines.
Underscoring the severity of the situation, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos arrived in Goma on Tuesday and is to visit some of the 280,000 people who have fled their homes since mutinying soldiers launched the M23 rebellion in April. But security is so poor that Amos was forced to cancel planned trips to the mining town of Walikale and the seat of the rebellion in Rutshuru, 50 miles north of Goma.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
As the 150,000-strong Congolese army and 20,000 UN peacekeepers have redeployed against M23 rebels in North Kivu province, fighting has spread to villages and towns, with the combatants often aiming to gain control of mines.
“We support the efforts of the [Democratic Republic of Congo] and we urge all the states in the region, including Rwanda, to work together to cut off support for the rebels in the M23, to disarm them, and to bring their leaders to justice,” US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.
Responding to the escalating crisis in the mineral-rich area, regional leaders met in Uganda on Tuesday, where they may seek a change in the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission. The option is one of three under consideration as presidents forming the 11-nation International Conference on the Great Lakes Region pursue a solution to the crisis.
Other options include incorporating a neutral force drawn from around Africa into the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, an idea that appears to be favored by the Congolese, or establishing a force from regional armies, a more desirable situation for Uganda and Rwanda, according to officials monitoring deliberations.
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"Gunmen attack physician who aids Congo rape victims" by Saleh Mwanamilongo | Associated Press, October 27, 2012
KINSHASA, Congo — Gunmen killed a guard and fired at a renowned Congolese doctor who has helped thousands of women after violent rapes.
Four armed assailants killed a security guard and shot at Dr. Denis Mukwege at his home in Bukavu Thursday night and stole the medic’s car, the South Kivu Province Governor Marcellin Cishambo said Friday.
The intruders held Mukwege’s family at gunpoint and waited for the doctor to return home from work, according to Physicians for Human Rights. When Mukwege arrived they forced him out of his car and shot dead the security guard who tried to intervene. Shots were fired at Mukwege but he succeeded in ducking from them. The gunmen drove off in the doctor’s car, but quickly abandoned it.
Security has been increased at the doctor’s home, the governor said.
Mukwege is a gynecologist devoted to the cause of women victims of rape in Congo.
He founded the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu. Mukwege, 57, and his team have treated more than 30,000 victims of violent rapes during the last 10 years. Many of the women and girls were gang-raped and needed surgery for their injuries.
The attack on Mukwege’s home highlights the increasingly volatile and violent situation in eastern Congo.
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Related: Globe Gives You Congo
You might need a rape kit.
"Forty-four people were killed in fighting between the Congolese Army and M23 rebels Thursday, ending a two-month cease-fire, said Congolese officials. Each side blamed the other for starting the fighting."
"Rebels believed to be backed by Rwanda fired mortars and machine guns Monday on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Goma, threatening to capture one of the largest cities in eastern Congo in a development that could drag this Central African nation back into war."
"Ignoring UN peacekeepers, rebels seize key Congolese city" by Sudarsan Raghavan | Washington Post, November 21, 2012
NAIROBI — Rebel forces in Congo seized control Tuesday of Goma, a strategic provincial capital in the nation’s resource-rich east, despite the presence of UN peacekeepers in the area.
Related: The Quietest Holocaust You Never Heard Of
Despite the presence?
The takeover sent tens of thousands fleeing and triggered fears of a regional conflict, according to officials and witnesses....
By Tuesday afternoon, the M23 rebels, formed earlier this year, had taken control of many of Goma’s streets and the international airport, according to news reports.
This nook of Africa has been in a state of perpetual instability for many years.
Related: Cutting Through the African Bush
That clear things up for you?
Congo has been besieged by conflict since the fall of its longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.
Different groups of rebels and the armies of several nations have fought over the eastern part of the country and its resources, including vast deposits of tin, gold, and tantalite, a mineral used in cellphones and laptops.
The fighting has left millions dead, mostly from disease and starvation.
The International Crisis Group, a respected think tank, said in a statement Tuesday, ‘‘The past week has shown history repeating itself in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with the same tragic consequences for civilians in the region.’’
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the situation ‘‘ very dangerous, very worrying.’’
‘‘We condemn the ongoing violent assault of M23 and the fact that it’s now taken Goma in violation of the sovereignty of the DRC,’’ she said.
The M23 is mostly made up of soldiers from a previous rebel movement that threatened to seize control of Goma, a city of one million people, in 2008. The rebels and the government signed a peace deal on March 23, 2009, that called for the rebels to be integrated into the national army.
The M23 is named for that agreement.
But the pact fell apart in April, and as many as 700 soldiers, most former rebels, defected from the military and launched the M23 movement. This time they did not stop on the outskirts of Goma, as in 2008.
Are they trying to tell us 700 men beat the Congolese army and tens of thousands of U.N. troops?
The renegades are led by Bosco Ntaganda, wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The United Nations has accused him and other senior commanders of summary executions, rape, and the use of child soldiers.
Related: ICC Sentences Convicted Congolese Warlord
Also see: Hague verdict frees Congolese rebel
UN officials have also accused neighboring Rwanda of backing the rebels, which Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, has denied.
A 44-page UN report by specialists monitoring an arms embargo in Congo found that Rwandan officials have played a leading role in the rebellion, including financing the insurgents and providing them with sophisticated military equipment.
For years, the United Nations has had thousands of peacekeepers in Congo, the largest such force in the world, yet they have failed to prevent successive rebel movements from gaining territory. This time around, the UN force, known by its acronym MONUSCO, did not have a mandate to fight the M23 rebels.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France declared that it was ‘‘absurd’’ that a few hundred rebels were able to seize Goma....
It sure seemed that way to me.
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"Rwanda leads rebels, UN report says; Report alleges military provides troops, weapons" by Alexandra Olson and Peter Spielmann | Associated Press, November 22, 2012
UNITED NATIONS — The Rwandan military is commanding and supporting the rebel force that overtook a major city in eastern Congo this week, a United Nations report released Wednesday said.
Uganda is also providing more subtle but nonetheless decisive backing to the M23 rebels, the report said.
The report’s release, just one day after the violent takeover of Goma, is sure to increase pressure on the international community to confront the two eastern African countries over their role in neighboring Congo’s conflict. Both Rwanda and Uganda have repeatedly denied supporting the M23 movement and have faced little international criticism over the allegations.
The highly anticipated report from the UN Group of Experts said both Rwanda and Uganda have ‘‘cooperated to support the creation and expansion of the political branch of M23 and have consistently advocated on behalf of the rebels. M23 and its allies include six sanctioned individuals, some of whom reside in or regularly travel to Rwanda and Uganda.’’
The document said that Rwanda is funneling weapons, providing troop reinforcements to the M23 rebels, facilitating recruitment, and encouraging desertions from the Congolese armed forces. The de facto chain of command of M23 ends with Rwanda’s defense minister, General James Kabarebe, the report said.
M23 is ‘‘a Rwandan creation,’’ said Steven Hege, a member of the Group of Experts. He said Rwandan soldiers and commanders embedded with M23 take orders from Rwanda, not the rebels....
The report puts the UN in an uncomfortable position. Rwanda has been elected by the UN General Assembly to serve a two-year position on the 15-member Security Council beginning in January, which will complicate efforts by the council to come to grips with the country’s intervention in Congo.
The Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to impose travel bans, assets freezes, and other sanctions on the leaders of M23, and called for an end to external support for the rebellion, but without naming Rwanda or Uganda.
Rwanda’s representative spoke to the council after the vote to deny that his country is involved in the Congolese rebellion. Uganda has previously denied involvement and said it would pull its troops out of UN peacekeeping operations if it were named in the report.
Timothy Longman, director of Boston University’s African Studies Center, said the United States and other countries have been reluctant to confront Rwanda out of lingering sympathy for its 1994 genocide and because the country is considered a successful model for development. He said Rwanda has become a key international player under President Paul Kagame, including supplying troops for the African Union mission in Darfur.
‘‘The international community needs to stop pretending like Kagame is a benign leader and realize that the green light given to his unacceptable behavior in the past is allowing him to get away with literally murder,’’ said Longman, a former director of the Human Rights Watch office in Rwanda.
The United States suspended its military aid — albeit only $200,000 — to Rwanda after parts of the UN preliminary report were leaked last month. Other European countries followed suit, suspending humanitarian aid to Rwanda.
The US Mission to the United Nations did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
The M23 movement, which formed in April when hundreds of troops defected from the Congolese armed forces, now has some 1,250 troops, according to the report. Thousands of Congolese soldiers and policemen defected to M23 Wednesday as rebel leaders vowed to take control of all Congo, including the capital, Kinshasa.
The UN report accuses the M23 commanders of recruiting hundreds of young boys and girls as soldiers and ordering the extrajudicial executions of dozens of recruits and prisoners of war.
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"Congo rebels fight for town" by Edmund Kagire and Melanie Gouby | Associated Press, November 23, 2012
GOMA, Congo — Soldiers and rebels battled for hours over the eastern town of Sake on Thursday, forcing thousands of people to run as militants seeking to overthrow the government vowed to push ahead despite mounting international pressure.
Meanwhile, the leader of the M23 rebel group went to neighboring Uganda where emergency talks were held this week between the presidents of Congo and its neighbors Uganda and Rwanda.
Fighting erupted Thursday in the town of Sake, which the rebels had seized Wednesday after capturing the strategic provincial capital of Goma, about 17 miles away.
Rebel spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vianney Kazarama vowed Thursday that the fighters would press toward seizing the strategic eastern town of Bukavu, which would mark the biggest gain in rebel territory in nearly a decade if it were to fall.
The presidents from Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda who met in the Ugandan capital of Kampala have called on the fighters to give up the territory they now control.
Joseph Kabila, the Congolese president, later said he was willing to talk with rebel representatives.
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"Congo fires army chief over sales of arms to rebels" by Jerome Delay and Pete Jones | Associated Press, November 24, 2012
SAKE, Congo — Congo’s president has suspended the army’s chief of staff, following the publication of a United Nations report that reveals that General Gabriel Amisi oversaw a criminal network selling arms to rebels in the country’s troubled east.
The firing of the general indicates that Congo is finally getting tough on its notoriously dysfunctional and internally divided army. It comes as an eight-month-old rebel group pushed beyond Goma, the bustling regional capital of eastern Congo, which fell to the fighters earlier this week.
On Friday, M23 rebels patrolled Sake, the next town on the road south from Goma. They manned checkpoints, drank vodka in bars, and let the corpses of Congolese soldiers rot in the streets. One of the soldier’s bodies bore an execution-style bullet wound to the temple.
The rebellion is led by soldiers who defected from the Congolese Army. Before their recent defection, their commanders benefited from a privileged relationship with Congo’s government, despite mounting evidence of their complicity in grave abuses. The leader of the M23 is believed to be General Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
Tens of thousands of civilians could be seen fleeing along a 6-mile stretch of the road to Goma, carrying mattresses and cooking pots, as well as live chickens, goats, and babies bundled on their backs. Sake was nearly deserted. A lone father returned to his empty house. He had fled on Thursday when the shooting erupted, but lost track of his four children in the scramble to get out of town. The youngest are just 2 and 4 years old, he said.
‘‘We heard shots from the hills,’’ said Timothe Mashamba. ‘‘We fled, but now I have returned. I lost my four children when we fled and haven’t found them. I am waiting for them here. I can’t leave. They won’t know where to find me.’’
The president of neighboring Uganda was acting as a go-between for the two sides, and on Friday, one of the leaders of M23, Bishop Jean-Marie Runiga, was in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, for talks, said deputy rebel spokesman Amani Kabasha. Earlier in the week, both Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who is accused of arming the rebels, met in Uganda for an attempted mediation.
The two presidents agreed on certain principles and are now discussing them with M23, said the rebel spokesman.
‘‘[Kagame and Kabila] took decisions in Kampala and now they want to talk to Bishop Runiga about them. Joseph Kabila said in his communique that he would talk to us, and that is what we want,’’ said the rebel spokesman.
Congo’s troubled east has been plagued by decades of violence, and the latest rebellion is a reincarnation of a previous conflict.
The rebel group that took Goma dubs itself M23, a reference to the March 23, 2009, peace deal that paved the way for fighters from a now-defunct rebel group to join the army. Charging that the peace accord was not implemented, soldiers defected from the Congolese Army in April to form M23. Both M23 and the previous rebel group, known as the CNDP, are widely believed to be backed by Rwanda, which has fought two wars against its much-larger neighbor.
Numerous reports by the United Nations Group of Experts have shown the extent of Rwandan infiltration in the rebel groups based in Congo, as well as in Congo’s armed forces, but it was not until the release of the most recent findings that Congo took decisive action.
A statement released by the office of Kabila said that the UN report published on Nov. 21 made clear that Amisi’s behavior was contrary to the rules of military behavior.
‘‘The President of the Republic has decided to suspend him immediately of all his functions, while an investigation is ongoing,’’ the statement said.
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Related: Congo Slips Into Chaos Again as Rebels Gain
Congo and M23 rebels negotiate in Uganda
"Rebels keep control in key Congo city" November 27, 2012
GOMA, Congo — Rebels widely believed to be backed by Rwanda and Uganda held their positions in this key eastern Congolese city that they seized last week, letting a midnight deadline for their withdrawal expire in the early hours of Tuesday.
Trucks loaded with fighters belonging to the eight-month-old M23 rebel group patrolled the empty streets of this regional capital, as the ultimatum issued by the regional bloc representing nations in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa came to an end.
Earlier in the day, the rebels announced plans to move their headquarters to this city of 1 million later this week, another sign that they do not intend to respect the demands of mediators.
For the first time since the fall of Goma eight days ago, the Congolese government acknowledged that it had entered talks with the rebels who handed Congo’s military its most humiliating defeat since Goma was last overrun by fighters nearly a decade ago. The two sides were meeting in Kampala, the capital of neighboring Uganda. On Monday, the head of the M23 rebels confirmed that he was en route to Uganda to join in the negotiations.
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Related:
Congo rebels begin slow retreat from Masisi
"Congolese city remains on edge as rebel group begins pullout" by Jeffrey Gettleman | New York Times, December 02, 2012
NAIROBI — The rebel group that recently captured Goma, a strategic city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, pulled out hundreds of troops on Saturday, but Goma was still waiting to exhale.
Residents packed the streets to watch the rebels chug out of town in big trucks, with rebel soldiers belting out victory songs as they left.
“We saw combat, and the enemy ran away,’’ the rebels cheered.
Another verse: ‘‘We’re leaving, but we’ll be back soon.’’
The rebels, called the M23, were under intense international pressure to leave Goma after inflicting a humiliating defeat on Congolese forces and setting off a national crisis with anti-government protests erupting across Congo. As much as Goma was a coveted prize — it is one of Congo’s most vital trade hubs — many rebel leaders said that holding the city and trying to administer it would have been too much trouble.
On Saturday afternoon, UN officials in Goma confirmed that the rebels were finally leaving.
Still, many of Goma’s residents were frightened about what lies ahead. Lawlessness has been increasing in the past week, with home invasions, carjackings, and killings on the rise.
“Some people are worried that the army might be even worse than the M23 and that when the army returns they will start stealing,’’ said one Goma resident who did not want to be identified because of the risk of reprisals.
Goma’s residents, like people in many other parts of Congo, have been trapped for years between marauding rebel groups that rape, pillage, and kill with complete impunity and a dysfunctional government army that often does the same.
With the world'slargest U.N. peacekeeping force standing by just down the road?
Under a peace plan brokered by Congo’s neighbors, the M23 rebels are supposed to withdraw all their troops from Goma except for one company that will be allowed to stay at the airport along with government troops.
A ‘‘neutral force’’ composed of soldiers from other African countries will also help keep the peace in Goma, a sprawling city of several hundred thousand people — maybe a million, no one really knows.
On Saturday, Goma residents said they saw Ugandan and Tanzanian military officers in the city, possibly the vanguard of the neutral force.
The M23 group is widely believed to be backed by Rwanda, and a UN document leaked to The New York Times on Friday said that Rwandan troops had actually helped capture Goma.
Several of Rwanda’s staunchest allies, including the United States and Britain, have cut back on aid to Rwanda because of the growing evidence that it has fomented yet another rebellion in Congo.
Under the peace deal for Goma, the Congolese government has agreed to ‘‘listen, evaluate, and resolve the legitimate grievances of M23.’’
Many analysts say that because of the weakness of the Congolese government, the M23 commanders will be given top positions in the army and that rebels will gain an even tighter grip on eastern Congo, home to gold, coltan, and other mineral riches as well as several other equally brutal armed groups.
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Related: Rebels in Congo demand negotiations
Congo rebels to go to Uganda for negotiations
Official wants Congo rebels to disband
Also see: U.S. Military and Corporate Recolonization of the Congo
And as if that weren't enough for the Congolese to put up with?
"Congo refugees face cholera threat" Associated Press, August 04, 2012
GOMA, Congo — The first case of cholera has emerged among thousands of people in an impromptu refugee camp in eastern Congo, where they fled to after fighting between a new rebel group and government forces backed by UN peacekeepers, Doctors Without Borders said.
Dr. Patrick Wieland said Doctors Without Borders has set up an isolation clinic tent at Kanyaruchinya outside the provincial capital of Goma, where between 10,000 and 20,000 people have taken refuge in a school, a church, and nearby grounds.
Cholera is a contagious disease caused by filth and lack of hygiene. Wieland said humanitarian agencies are delivering water to the camp but people probably are collecting the water in dirty containers. He said there are not enough toilets for those who fled fighting last week in Rutshuru and neighboring Kiwanja, about 50 miles north of Goma.
Rebels last week attacked Congolese army troops and UN peacekeepers, firing mortars at the peacekeepers’ base at Kiwanja, which was surrounded by more than 2,000 displaced people at that time. Wieland said the fighting was much heavier than any his team has seen in the three-month-old rebellion.
‘‘We’re treating people with arms and legs blown off by grenades and other heavy arms,’’ said Wieland. He also said that for the first time they treated many more civilians than combatants.
