Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo entered the Bukavu Vital Shopping Center on Sunday in the east of the country, according to combatants and videos broadcast by local residents. If he is confirmed, Bukavu would be the last city to fall into a radical offensive which revealed the weakness of the Congolese ruin army.
The M23 rebels – which are supported and led by Rwanda, the much smaller neighbor from the Congo – seemed to meet anything, the residents said, while they were walking towards Bukavu, a provincial capital which is a major trading center and of gold smuggling.
“We are here, we are here in Bukavu,” said Willy Ngoma, an M23 spokesperson reached by phone.
On Sunday, the rebels addressed a crowd of people on the main square of Bukavu after entering the city in long silent columns, according to three witnesses and videos shared on social networks and verified by Times. The witnesses asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals from the armed group.
A few days earlier, the Congolese soldiers had fled the city in similar columns, according to ten other residents, leaving Bukavu without leadership clearly and in the hands of looters who burst into warehouses and stores. The Congolese government did not speak publicly about the situation in the city on Sunday, and the capture of Bukavu was not confirmed independently.
Bukavu’s apparent fall would contrast the prolonged battle for the key city of Goma last month, during which nearly 3,000 people were killed, according to the United Nations.
With the capture of Bukavu, a city of more than a million people who are on the edge of a crystalline lake, the M23 rebels would now control the two largest shopping centers in the East Rich in minerals in the Congo.
Experts say that the capture of Bukavu threatens to attract more neighboring countries to the conflict. The city is 20 miles from the border with Burundi, whose troops fought alongside the Congolese army.
“This will increase the risk of regional war, in particular with Burundi,” said Fred Bauma, executive director of Ebuteli, a specialized research group in Congo, about the fall of Bukavu.
Now M23 is also more directly connected to its powerful fundaler, Rwanda. Bukavu and Goma, on the southern and northern edges of Lake Kivu’s sprawl, are both sitting on the border with Rwanda, whose smuggling mineral exports have increased in recent years, according to United Nations Experts.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda recognized that Rwandan soldiers are present in eastern Congo but denied the support of the M23.
M23 leaders have now promised to walk on Kinshasa, the capital of Congo and one of the largest cities in Africa. The Congolese government has refused to sit with M23 or Rwanda leaders, and its military response on the ground has been limited.
M23 is the most powerful of dozens of armed groups who have destabilized the east of the Congo for almost three decades. Since the capture of Goma, the rebels have promised to restore order and security – trying to present the group as an administrative power sufficiently qualified to govern large parts of one of the richest mining regions in Africa.
“It is important that we can work hand in hand for the development of our country,” said Bernard Byamungu, a high -ranking official of M23 on Sunday in Bukavu, according to a video verified by the Times. “No development without work, but let’s not forget that peace remains fundamental for a stable nation.”
Mr. Byamungu then ordered residents to return home so that M23 can finish securing the city.
Group’s calls for peace were in contradiction with M23 bloody tactics on the ground. The M23 has repeatedly violated the cess of Cessor, some of which he had declared unilaterally. Mr. Byamungu, according to The United Nationsplanned and directed the killings of civilians and the extrajudicial executions of soldiers.
Unlike Goma, the apparent capture of Bukavu was not a surprise: schools have closed it earlier this month and countless people have fled in recent weeks in anticipation of the M23 offensive.
The M23 rebels entered Bukavu on Sunday after saying that they had capture A neighboring airport that the Congolese army had used as a key rear base to try to contain the group’s advance in the province of South Kivu.
The last M23 offensive, which started in early January, still destabilized the east of the Congo, a region rich in minerals marked by nearly three decades of conflict on access to land and gold, tin and cobalt, among other minerals.
More than 500,000 people were moved last month, according to the The United Nations. The number of rapes against children made by armed groups, already unleashed in the region, has skyrocketed in recent weeks, according to UNICEF.
Ruth Maclean Dakar’s contributed reports.
