Africa-Press – Rwanda. More than 2,100 Congolese police officers and 890 soldiers on Saturday, February 22, joined the AFC/M23 rebellion in Bukavu, the capital of DR Congo’s South Kivu Province which the rebels seized last week.
This comes barely five days after the rebel group integrated into its ranks hundreds of government soldiers who surrendered after the capture of Goma, the capital of DR Congo’s North Kivu Province, in late January.
“Currently in the city of Bukavu, more than 2,100 elements of the Congolese National Police and 890 FARDC soldiers are freely expressing their choice to join our organization. We salute the courage and commitment of these compatriots to defend our noble cause of ‘living together’ and the humanization of Congolese life,” Bertrand Bisimwa, a senior leader of the AFC/M23 movement, posted on his X, on Saturday.
En ce moment dans la ville de Bukavu, plus de 2100 éléments de la Police Nationale Congolaise et 890 soldats des FARDC expriment librement leur choix de rejoindre notre Organisation.
Since January, the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) have suffered major losses in the war against AFC/M23 rebels. The FARDC coalition includes includes hundreds of European mercenaries, Rwandan genocidal militias known as FDLR, Congolese ethnic militias called Wazalendo, Burundian armed forces, South African-led SADC forces, as well as UN peacekeepers. FDLR is a DR Congo-based terrorist militia founded by remnants of the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Its plan is to return to Rwanda, forcefully, and continue its genocidal agenda.
Following the heavy fighting triggered by constant violations of an earlier set ceasefire by the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) in coalition, on January 27, the rebels captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, and quickly moved to secure and stabilise the situation and restore orderthere.
As the security situation in South Kivu deteriorated amid reports of violence, looting, and abuses propagated by the Congolese army coalition, the rebels moved again and, first captured the strategic airport of Kavumu, before moving south to capture the regional capital, Bukavu, on February 15. Before that happened, people were urging them to quickly move in, and secure the entire city.
People in rebel-controlled areas in North and South Kivu provinces are relieved that the Congolese army coalition is not disturbing their peace.
On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that condemned the ongoing offensive and advance of AFC/M23 rebels in their country’s east but made no mention of the fundamental issues including the fact that a genocidal ideology, and agenda, remains central to the crisis.
Kigali has, so often, explained that growing violent ethnic extremism in the region continues, particularly affecting Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese communities, a situation that led to the M23 rebellion years ago.
The war between the Congolese government army coalition that includes FDLR, over 10,000 Burundian troops, 1,600 European mercenaries, and South Africa-led SADC forces, against M23 rebels started in 2021.
M23 is now part of a larger rebel coalition, Alliance fleuve Congo (AFC), created in December 2023.
The AFC is fighting for governance that supports basic human rights, secures all Congolese citizens, and addresses the root causes of conflict. Its leaders have vowed to uproot tribalism, nepotism, corruption, and genocide ideology, among other vices, widespread in DR Congo.
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