The weak army fought the Congolese against the rebels backed by Rwanda, who the United Nations said quickly move to the province of South Kivu after the seizure of the largest city in the region and an international airport. The crisis, which said the United Nations killed 700 people this week, is at risk.
With the outbreak of fighting with the M23 rebels on Saturday, the Congolese army regained the villages of Sanzi, Mujanzo and Mocheidiga in the lands of Calais in southern Kivu, which fell on the rebels earlier this week, according to civil society officials. Those who spoke to Associated Press, provided that his identity is not revealed to fear for their safety.
The state army was weakened in Central Africa after losing hundreds of forces, and foreign mercenaries surrendered to the rebels after the fall of Goma.
Meanwhile, UN peace leader Jean -Pierre Lacroix said that the M23 and Rwandan forces have been about 60 km (37 miles) north of the capital of South Kevo in Boukavo, which covers almost the same distance in the past two days since it started to advance Along Lake Kivu. On the border with Rwanda. Lacrawi said that the rebels “seem to move very quickly,” and they acquire an airport a few kilometers (miles) “will be another important step.”
M23 is the most powerful more than 100 armed groups competing for control in the East, which is rich in minerals in the Congo, which carries a decisive broad deposit for many technology in the world. They are supported by about 4000 soldiers from the neighboring Rwanda, according to United Nations experts, much more than it was in 2012, when they seized Goma for the first time and kept it for several days in a conflict led by ethnic grievances.
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The United Nations and the Relief Group said that the seizure of Guma resulted in a terrible humanitarian crisis. Goma works as a decisive human center for many of the 6 million people of the displaced due to the conflict in the eastern Congo. The rebels said they will walk all the way to the capital of Congo Kinshasa, 1,600 km (1000 miles) to the west.
UN spokesman Stefan Dujarrick told a briefing on Friday that the World Health Organization and its partners conducted an evaluation with the Congo government from January 26 to 30, and stated that 700 people had killed and wounded 2,800 people in Ghauma and the neighboring area. Dujarric assured AP that deaths occurred during those days.
Jeremy Lawrence, a spokesman for the United Nations Human Rights Office, said on Friday that the progress of the rebels had left in the wake of the outside of the judiciary and forced civilians. “We have also documented brief executions of at least 12 people by M23” from January 26 to 28, adding that the group also occupied schools and hospitals in the province and civilians were subjected to forced recruitment and forced work, “Lawrence said.
Lawrence said that the Congolese forces were also accused of sexual violence while fighting in the region, adding that the United Nations is checking the reports that Congolese forces have raped 52 women in southern Kivu.
Rose Chuenko, the rural director of the Mercy Group of Relief Corps in the Congo, said that the arrest of Juma brought humanitarian operations to “a complete stop, and cut off the vital life artery to provide aid throughout the east (Congo).”
She said: “The escalation of violence towards Bukavo raises fears of greater displacement, while the collapse of human access leaves entire societies that were cut off without support.”
And copied 2025 Canadian press
