Wars: almost three thousand dead are there for attacks on the Congo

The number of deaths for the fighting between the Army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC) and the rebel group March 23 (M23) last week in the strategic northeastern rubber city and its surroundings amounts to almost three thousandconfirmed yesterday the deputy head of the UN Peace Mission in the country (Monusco), Vivian Van de Perre.

“Our last evaluation, based on team data in the country that actively helped M23 to collect the bodies and give them a burial as worthy as possible, indicates that so far Two thousand bodies from rubber streets have been recovered in recent days, and there are 900 more in the morgues of the city hospitals”Said Van de Perre at a telematic press conference.

“We hope these figures will increase,” he warned.

For its part, andl M23 spokesman, Lawrence A milesaid Wednesday in his profile of the social network X that the Congolese government “is manipulating” the number of deaths in rubber, capital of the province of Kivu northern.

“This is the reality on the ground: more than two,500 dead are fighters of the FARDC (RDC Armed Forces), FDLR (democratic forces for the liberation of Rwanda) and Wazalendo (allied militias of the Congolese army),” he said Kanyuka.

Besides, He argued that many people displaced by the conflict “are spontaneously returning to their villages”.

Yesterday it marked the second day of the fire declared unilaterally by the M23 – armed group formed mainly by tutsis suffered by the 1994 Rwandan genocide – last Monday in the east of the RDC, with the argument of responding “to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Kinsasa regime.”

However, the rebels broke the truce by resuming fighting this Wednesday in a town in the neighboring province of Kivu del Sur, as confirmed by local authorities.

The ceasefire had been announced a week after, after days of intense clashes with the Congolese army and its allies, The M23 rebels will take rubber on January 27. The city, with a population of about two million inhabitants, houses international NGOs and United Nations institutions.

The fighting has caused a “very serious” humanitarian crisis, as the UN humanitarian coordinator has repeatedly denounced in the RDC, Bruno Lemarquis, who warned that the population faces huge needs.

EFE

The conflict is far from finishing

• Dispute for natural resources. The RDC has abundant minerals (coltan, gold, diamonds, copper), which has generated struggles for its control between armed groups and international actors.
• Intervention of neighboring countries. Rwanda and Uganda have been accused of supporting rebel groups such as M23 to obtain access to resources and expand their influence.
• Presence of armed groups. Local and foreign militias, such as FDLR and Mai-Mai, operate in the region, often with support from external actors.
• State weakness. The RDC government has been unable to exercise effective control over the entire territory, allowing the rise of rebel groups.

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