Heavy fighting broke out on Sunday (June 12th) in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo following a new attack by M23 rebels, according to the Congolese army.
When the Belgian royal couple arrived Sunday morning in Bukavu from Lubumbashi to meet the doctor Denis Mukwegenew violent fighting is reported in North Kivu, on the Ugandan border, between the Congolese army and the M23 rebellion.
Troops of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) were attacked by the M23 in Bunagana, a former stronghold of the rebel movement taken over by the Congolese army in 2013, on the border with Uganda, and in the locality neighbor of Tshengerero, according to Colonel Muhindi Lwanzo, local military administrator.
An army officer told AFP on condition of anonymity that Congolese soldiers were repelling the rebels on Sunday afternoon and that fighting continued on the road to Bunagana.
According to Damien Sebusanane, head of a local civil society association, most of the population fled the center of the town, an important crossing point for goods between Congo and Uganda, which was surrounded by rebels. The army would have responded in particular with tanks.
Tensions have been rising with neighboring Rwanda since M23 attacks have multiplied in the east of the country. On June 5, the President of the DRC Félix Tshisekedi had claimed not to have “ no doubt on Rwanda’s support for the rebels Venus ” attack His country, by wanting as proof the arsenal of the rebel group, signs, according to him, of the complicity of Rwanda, which Kigali denies. According to the DRC, the rebels’ use of long-range guns could show support from Rwanda.
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(With AFP)