DR Congo condemns M23 stratagem as rebels break ceasefire
According to France 24, Rwanda-backed M23 and regular Rwandan forces broke the ceasefire they had unilaterally declared in a dawn offensive on January 5th, showing the truce was a stratagem, blasts the Congolese government.
“This is proof that the unilateral ceasefire that has been declared was, as usual, a ploy,” a Democratic Republic of the Congo government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told AFP.
The M23 rebels and Rwandan forces have launched a new offensive at dawn in Eastern DRC, warn security and humanitarian sources, only a day after announcing a humanitarian ceasefire.
The clashes that occurred in the early morning are the latest in a 3-year conflict during which half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been declared by the M23, before being systematically broken.
The DRC’s foreign Minister lamented the absence of international actions over the events unfolding in the country.
“We see a lot of declarations, but we don’t see actions,” Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told journalists after meeting her Belgian counterpart in Brussels.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) said it was monitoring the situation in the country, “including the grave escalation of violence over the past weeks in eastern DRC, in particular in and around the provincial capital of North Kivu, Goma”.
The conflict has already created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than seven million people displaced.
Yet more egregious reports have emerged including hundreds of rapes and people being burnt alive after inmates escaped a prison in Goma, as the rebels seized the city.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame will attend the extraordinary summit held by The East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Saturday, has announced the Kenyan presidency.
The UN Human Right Council will also hold an emergency session to discuss the situation in Eastern Congo, a UN statement said.
France 24, The Guardian, Maghrebi
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