Rubber, Democratic Republic of Congo:
The Congolese security forces are struggling to contain violence in rubber, where the M23 rebels backed by Rwanda seemed to have consolidated their control over the largest city in the east of the Congo. With the support of the Rwanda troops, the rebel combatants marched to the city of Lakeside of almost 2 million on Monday on the worst escalation of a long -term conflict in more than a decade.
It was not clear how much of the provincial capital was under control, but according to the media reports, the M23 armed group confiscated the control of the rubber airport, which could cut the main route for the aid to reach hundreds of thousands of people displaced.
The security source told the AFP news agency that “more than 1,200 Congolese soldiers have surrendered and are confined” at the base of the UN Mission Airport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC).
Violence intensified quickly
Destin Jamaica Kela, who fled through the border to Rwanda while the fights broke into a rubber, told AFP that “things changed very fast.”
“The bombs were falling and killing other people everywhere, we saw corpses,” said the 24 -year -old.
Bertrand Bisimwa, who leads the political wing of the M23, said in X that the last rubber resistance pockets had been left.
“Our army is working hard to guarantee total security, complete tranquility and definitive peace, as is the case with all its compatriots living in released areas,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the Congolese capital Kinshasa, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) west rubber, the protesters attacked a UN complex and embassies, including those of Rwanda, France and the United States on Tuesday, angry what they said that they said that It was foreign interference.
Overflowed hospitals
Days of intense clashes have killed more than 100 people and wounded almost 1,000, according to a count of deaths from the AFP of the city’s overflowing hospitals.
“We had to drain the gasoline of the ambulances to feed the generator because there are people in respirators who could not survive without electricity … Injuries are often very serious. Some people die before they even get there.” The manager of a rubber hospital told the Reuters news agency.
Crisis summit
The president of Dr. Congo Felix Tshisekedi, beaten by crisis, would meet Wednesday with the president of Ruanda Paul Kagame to an “extraordinary” summit of the Eastern Africa community organized by Kenya, while the combatants backed by Kigali advanced in rubber.
Before the crisis conversations, the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, pressed Kagame for an immediate ending of the fighting in a call to the Rwanda leader described Wednesday as “productive.” Rubio told Kagame that Washington was “deeply worried” about climbing and urged “sovereign territorial integrity,” said the United States Department of State in a statement.
Later, in a publication on X, the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame No indication of including the demands of a rubber retreat.
“I had a productive conversation with the Rubio Secretary about the need to guarantee a high fire in the east of the RDC and address the fundamental causes of the conflict once and for all,” Kagame wrote.
The rubber assault also led to a generalized international condemnation of Rwanda and asks for a high fire. The United States urged the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to consider unpinal measures to stop the offensive.
About RDC conflict
M23 is the last one in a series of ethnic insurgencies led by Tutsi, backed by Rwanda, which have discarded the Congo from the sequelae of the genocide in Rwanda 30 years ago, when the extremists Hutu killed Tutsis and Hutus moderate The Tutsi-Tutsi-Wutsi-Wutsi-Wutsi-Wutsi-Wutsi-Wutsi-Wutsi-Wuti-Wuti-Wuti-Wuti-Wutus Forces led by Kagame.
Ruanda says that some of the expelled perpetrators have been taking refuge in the Congo since the genocide, forming militias with alliances with the Congolese government, and represent a threat to the Congolese and Rwanda tutsis.
Congo rejects Rwanda’s complaints and says that Rwanda has used her proxy militias to control and loot lucrative minerals such as Coltan, which is used in smartphones.
The M23 rebels had previously captured rubber in 2012 during their last great insurgency, but retired after a few days after intense international pressure and threats to withdraw help to Rwanda. Citing analysts and diplomats, Reuters reported that it is unlikely to materialize this time due to the reluctance of world powers to face Rwanda, which has positioned itself as a stable partner in a tumultuous region.
By
