Violent clashes pitted M23 rebels supported by Rwanda against the Congolese Armed Forces, supported by local armed groups, on Thursday, January 2, in eastern DRC. Of great intensity, they took place in several towns in the territory of Masisi, some 70 kilometers west of Goma, and caused a massive displacement of the population the day after the New Year festivities.
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With our correspondent in Goma, Heir Baraka
Throughout the day of Thursday, January 2, detonations of light weapons and heavy weapons were heard even in the towns of Kaniro and Kinigi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), causing panic among the local population.
According to Congolese civil society, these violent battles took place precisely around Katale, a locality located about twenty kilometers southeast of Masisi, the main administrative center of the region which would be coveted by the rebels of the M23according to several concordant sources. Katale, where there is a strategic position of the Congolese army and its Wazalendo allies, is the last barrier on the road to Masisi.
Exchanges of fire that pushed hundreds of residents to flee their villages
While fighting between the army and rebels is also reported in several localities in the Bashali chiefdom, Alphonse Mushesha Mihingano, the leader of the neighboring Buabo group, says that these exchanges of fire have pushed hundreds of residents to flee. their villages. Spokesperson for the wazalendo present in the area, Colonel Séraphin Nsabimana, for his part, accuses the M23 fighters of having attacked their positions.
Clashes of great intensity have resumed in North Kivu since the aborted summit in Luanda which should have brought together the Congolese president, Felix Tshisekediand his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagameon December 15, in Angola.
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