Rwandan-backed Africa River Alliance & M23 fighters have taken control of Bukavu, the second-largest city in the Kivu region.
This comes days after the largest city, Goma, fell to the fighters as they widened their push to oust imposter Felix Tshisekedi.
The fighters are controlling the airport, border points and all ports on Lake Kivu.
Scores of residents cheered the fighters after they entered Bukavu following a dayslong march from Goma, a city of 2 million people they seized last month.
The fighters saw little resistance from government forces against the unprecedented expansion of their reach after their years of fighting.
Congo’s government vowed to restore order in Bukavu, a city of 1.3 million people, but there was no sign of soldiers. Many were seen fleeing on Saturday alongside thousands of civilians.
The M23 are the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of eastern Congo’s trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that’s critical for much of the world’s technology. The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to United Nations experts.
The fighting has displaced more than 6 million people in the region, creating the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Bernard Maheshe Byamungu, one of the M23 leaders who has been sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council for rights abuses, stood in front of the South Kivu governor’s office in Bukavu and told residents they have been living in a “jungle.”
“We are going to clean up the disorder left over from the old regime,” Byamungu said, as some in the small crowd of young men cheered the rebels on to “go all the way to Kinshasa,” Congo’s capital, nearly 1,609 kilometres away.
“The Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC/M23) informs the international and national communities that, in light of the anarchy, insecurity, massacres, and looting resulting from the rout of the FARDC, FNDB, FDLR, and their allies, it has been decided to assist the population of Bukavu, a city abandoned by Kinshasa’s coalition forces.
“Since the morning of Sunday, February 16th, 2025, our forces have been working to restore the security for the people and their property, much to the satisfaction of the entire population.
“We reiterate our call for direct and sincere dialogue with the Kinshasa regime to address the root causes of the conflict and establish lasting peace in our country.
“AFC/M23 invites all political and social forces opposed to the illegitimate Kinshasa regime to join its constitutional struggle to effect a radical change in the system of governance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“If the FARDC and their criminal allies abandon their unsuccessful military campaign, the conditions for a ceasefire will be met, paving the way for lasting peace, coexistence, and stability in the DRC.
“AFC/M23 reserves the right to protect and defend the civilian population and the liberated areas against any atrocities perpetrated by the Kinshasa regime and its allies,” Lawrence Kanyuka, the Communication Focal Point, said.
Congo’s communications ministry, in a statement on social media, acknowledged for the first time that Bukavu had been “occupied” and said the national government was “doing everything possible to restore order and territorial integrity” in the region.
One Bukavu resident, Blaise Byamungu, said the rebels marched into the city that had been “abandoned by all the authorities and without any loyalist force.”
“Is the government waiting for them to take over other towns to take action? It’s cowardice,” Byamungu added.
The fighting in Congo has connections with a decadeslong ethnic conflict. The M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide and founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda militia group.
Rwanda says the militia group is “fully integrated” into the Congolese military, which denies it.
But the new face of the M23 in the region — Corneille Nangaa — is not Tutsi, giving the group “a new, more diverse, Congolese face, as M23 has always been seen as a Rwanda-backed armed group defending Tutsi minorities,” according to Christian Moleka, a political scientist at the Congolese research group Dypol.
Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi, whose government on Saturday asserted that Bukavu remained under its control, has warned of the risk of a regional expansion of the conflict.
Congo’s forces were being supported in Goma by troops from South Africa and in Bukavu by troops from Burundi. But Burundi’s president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, appeared to suggest on social media his country would not retaliate in the fighting.
The conflict was high on the African Union summit’s agenda in Ethiopia over the weekend, with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warning it risked spiralling into a regional conflagration.
Still, African leaders and the international community have been reluctant to take decisive action against M23 or Rwanda, which has one of Africa’s most powerful militaries. Most continue to call for a ceasefire and a dialogue between Congo and the rebels.
0 Comments