In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it has been more than a week since the Congolese armed forces and their allies launched an offensive in North Kivu against the M23 armed group supported by neighboring Rwanda. Several fronts were opened simultaneously by the Congolese soldiers against the rebels.
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After a lull on Saturday, the fighting resumed in intensity on Sunday. In the north of the North Kivu province, detonations were reported in the Rwindi area, in the heart of Virunga Park, and Kanyabayonga, the chiefdom of Bwito. In the same Rutshuru territory, several people were killed Sunday evening in the exposure of a grenade, this time in Lushege.
In the south of the North Kivu province, the FARDC wants to avoid any threat of contagion of the conflict in neighboring South Kivu while several bombs have already fallen in recent weeks in the territory of Minova. The fighting is mainly concentrated in Masisi with an advance by the FARDC-Wazalendos coalition, according to civil society sources.
As with each resumption of fighting, population movements are reported. In the province of North Kivu alone, more than 3 million people have now been displaced due to this conflict.
Doctors Without Borders called for the protection of hundreds of thousands of civilians “ caught in a vice » by the fighting in the East. Since the start of the year, the NGO says it has recorded 24 incidents involving “ shelling inside or around the camps » of displaced people where the NGO works.
Violence against civilians has increased in recent months.
Marie Brun, emergency coordinator for MSF in Goma