Sunday, October 27, 2013

Congo's army says it is heading for rebel stronghold


Congo's army says it is heading for rebel stronghold



 
 
By Kenny Katombe and Chrispin Mvano
 
Sunday October 27th 2013....11.17 a.m.
47 minutes ago
KINSHASA (Reuters) - The Congolese army said it had recaptured two more towns and was heading for the rebel stronghold of Rutshuru in a third day of fighting on Sunday, raising the prospect of a military victory by government forces.
A Congolese army officer on the front line said it had taken the towns of Kiwanja and Kalingera from the M23 rebels on Sunday, a day after wresting the strategic town of Kibumba near the Rwandan border from the insurgents.
Fighting was continuing at Kiguri, 25 km (15 miles) north of Goma, the biggest city in eastern Congo, he said.
The army had also opened a second front to the north of M23 positions and was moving southward to Rutshuru, officers said.
"We are consolidating the zones we have conquered," army spokesman Colonel Olivier Hamuli told Reuters near the front line. "Very soon we will take Rutshuru. Those who disarm we will accept, the others we will pursue."
M23 said in a statement on Sunday it had withdrawn its troops from Kiwanja, accusing the army of sending in fighters in civilian clothing in a bid to draw U.N. troops into the conflict.
M23 threatened to withdraw its delegation from stalled peace talks in the Ugandan capital Kampala unless there was an immediate end to hostilities. It said it would then launch a large-scale counter-offensive.
Following two months of relative calm, fighting flared up on Friday morning after talks broke down when M23 pressed for a full amnesty for its leaders. Each side blamed the other for starting the fighting.
AMNESTY DEMAND
Congolese President Joseph Kabila said unconditional amnesty was not an option and last week threatened a return to military action.
Congo's army, supported by a new United Nations intervention brigade, scored its first victories against the 20-month-old rebel movement in late August, forcing the rebels away from Goma.
The U.N. brigade has a tough new mandate to eliminate armed groups in the eastern provinces, though it has not been involved in the last three days of fighting.
The support of the brigade and the weakening of the rebels has fuelled belief that Congo's army - notoriously disorganized, undisciplined and under-supplied - could defeat M23.
Army sources told Reuters reporters in Goma that M23 had been weakened by desertions, with some 40 rebels taking advantage of a corridor created by the government troops to allow then to flee rebel lines.
M23 began in early 2012 as a mutiny by soldiers demanding the government implement the terms of a 2009 peace deal signed with a previous Rwanda-backed rebel group, many of whose members had been integrated into the army.
U.N. investigators and the Congolese government have accused Rwanda of supporting M23, charges Rwanda has repeatedly denied.
Hamuli said some M23 fighters had fled towards the Rwandan border in the face of the army advance.
"There are small pockets of M23 resistance in the hills near Rwanda," he said. "We think Rwanda has to prove its good faith and oblige M23 to disarm, or disarm them itself."
He refused to discuss the possibility of a return to peace talks in Kampala. "We are soldiers," he said. "We will continue to do our jobs as soldiers."
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; editing by Andrew Roche)
 
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Congolese army says it has taken 2 more towns

Associated Press
 
 
 
GOMA, Congo (AP) — The Congolese army says it has taken two more towns in eastern Congo in fresh fighting against the M23 rebels.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Olivier Hamuli told The Associated Press that the army on Sunday gained control of Kiwanja and Buhumba towns in the Rutshuru area of North Kivu province, near Congo's border with Rwanda.

The army, using tanks and heavy artillery, is fighting the M23 rebels in the hills surrounding Kibumba town. The army said it won control of Kibumba on Saturday and now is advancing on the M23 rebels who retreated to the hills toward the Rwandan border.

United Nations forces are not participating in the fighting, but are in armored personnel carriers and jeeps with mounted machine guns several kilometers (miles) behind the army forces.
 
 

UN Tanzanian soldier killed in DR Congo fighting

Kinshasa (AFP) - A Tanzanian officer with UN forces operating alongside government troops in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was killed in fighting with rebels on Sunday, the UN mission said.
AFP21 mins ago
 
Kinshasa (AFP) - A Tanzanian officer with UN forces operating alongside government troops in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was killed in fighting with rebels on Sunday, the UN mission said.
"A Tanzanian lieutenant with the (UN) intervention force was killed as the brigade was deployed with the army in Kiwanja (near the regional capital Goma)," an officer with the UN mission known as Monusco told AFP.



COMMENTS:


No Slacker 54 minutes ago
The M23 rebels have some interesting demands. One is that they be "paid and fed", for....forever? Apparently they want money from society for all the good rebelling work they have done over the past few years. I envision the they are the Congo equivalent of American "adults" who leech off their single Mom at 23.



Jack Smith 18 minutes ago
Honestly. If you ask the Congolese, Don't you think they would want the EUROPEANS BACK.
 


Bob Kahn 12 minutes ago
No. Their current problems are as a result of the Belgian colonization. Apparently you haven't read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
 
 

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