A rebel group with alleged links to Rwanda seized a town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) conflict-hit eastern region following attacks that killed at least 10 people and displaced thousands, reports said on Wednesday.
The seizure of Nyanzale by M23 rebels came after days of fighting with security forces, local civil society leader Jonas Pandasi said.
He said that thousands of people had fled toward Goma, which is eastern DR Congo’s largest city and the capital of North Kivu Province.
Photo: Reuters
It is more than 100km away.
“Initial reports put the death toll at around 10, with houses burnt down and shops looted of their goods,” Pandasi said. “The humanitarian situation is catastrophic, as almost the entire village of Nyanzale has moved towards Kikuku.”
It was not immediately clear when the rebel group took control of the town, although M23 on Tuesday wrote on X that Nyanzale “exudes the tranquility and deliverance,” suggesting it was overrun then.
M23 controls about half of North Kivu, according to the Crisis Group.
The violence in the province has worsened in the past few weeks as security forces battle the rebels.
Residents have said the group’s fighter mostly launch attacks with bombs out of hills overlooking remote towns.
Far from the capital, Kinshasa, eastern DR Congo has long been overrun by more than 120 armed groups seeking a share of the region’s gold and other resources as they carry out mass killings.
The result is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with about 7 million people displaced, many of them beyond the reach of aid.
The dominant group in the region, M23 rose to prominence just over 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, which is on the border with Rwanda.
It derives its name from a March 23, 2009, peace deal that it accuses the DR Congo government of not implementing.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi alleges that Rwanda is destabilizing DR Congo by backing the M23 rebels.
UN experts have linked the rebels to Rwandan forces.
Rwanda denies this.
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