APA – Kinshasa (DR Congo) – Heavy fighting has been reported in eastern Democratic of Congo as M23 rebels march on Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.
Correspondents reporting from the front line say sounds of heavy artillery could be heard issuing from the villages of Kibumba, Kingi, Bukombo where rebels have encountered DRC army soldiers.
According to the same sources soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) have been beating what appears to be a strategic retreat from the battlefield to take up new positions near the town of Sake in North Kivu province.
Reacting to the latest fighting, M23 rebel chairman, Bertrand Bisimwa claimed that, ”the FARDC and their Rwandan Hutu allies, mercenaries and militiamen known as Wazalendo are attacking the town of Kibumba north of Goma.
“The M23 are engaging the enemy on all fronts and they will be destroyed and their plan for ethnic cleansing will be undone” Bisimwa vowed.
The Congolese military has yet to confirm the latest skirmish, but local residents confirmed to APA that Saturday’s fighting has caused panic and people have started to flee the troubled area.
The fighting broke out a week after the M23 rebel group agreed to a ceasefire as demanded by African leaders at a mini-summit in the Angolan capital Luanda.
In a statement seen by APA, the rebel movement informed the United Nations and the international community that the Congolese government was in a ”warmongering campaign and attacking M23 positions instead of giving a chance for a peaceful resolution” of the ongoing conflict in eastern DR Congo.
The M23 is calling upon the East African Community to intervene.
According to the M23 a Burundi contingent backing DR Congo is in charge of the villages of Mushaki, Karubam Kitchanga and Mwesso ”where members of the Tutsi community continue to be killed, their property destroyed and are forced to abandon their ancestral land”.
The M23 said Burundian soldiers have been seen in battle wearing DR Congolese military uniforms and have established their headquarters in the village of Minova.
The statement by spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka warned that the M23 will not stand by watching the civilian population being massacred, displaced and rendered homeless.
CU/as/APA