Kinshasa: The March 23 Movement (M23) armed group announced that its fighters had entered Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu Province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
As the conflict escalated, regional leaders convened at the ongoing African Union (AU) summit, which will be concluded on Sunday, in an effort to prevent the crisis from spiraling into a broader regional war, Xinhua news agency reported.
In a statement released Saturday, the M23 called on Bukavu residents to form “vigilance committees to ensure security and to appoint honest and responsible people to lead them.” The group’s spokesperson Laurence Kanyuka confirmed earlier that the M23 had entered the city.
On Friday, the M23 announced that it had seized Kavumu Airport, a vital humanitarian and military supply hub in South Kivu. The airport serves as a key defensive line for Bukavu, located about 30 km away.
Local sources told Xinhua that despite the group’s earlier claim that it had no intention of capturing the city, its fighters continued advancing toward Bukavu. Meanwhile, some DRC soldiers and their allies were seen retreating toward Uvira, a strategic commercial and transport hub near the Burundian border.
The latest M23 offensive comes weeks after the group claimed to have captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, on January 26. Since early February, the rebels have seized several towns in South Kivu, sparking panic among Bukavu residents.
Violence has surged in the eastern DRC as the M23 intensifies its offensives. Since late 2021, the group has captured several strategic locations, including Goma, a regional urban hub with over one million residents and 700,000 displaced people, the border trading town of Bunagana, and the mining hub of Rubaya, known globally for its rich coltan deposits. The group has also set up parallel administrations in occupied territories, appointing a “provincial governor” in North Kivu last week.
The fighting in South Kivu, fueled by the M23’s continued offensive, threatens to push the entire region to the brink, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Saturday during the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. The escalating crisis in the eastern DRC was a key item on the summit’s agenda.
“Regional escalation must be avoided at all costs,” said the UN chief. “There is no military solution. The deadlock must end and dialogue must begin.”
In early February, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye also cautioned that the conflict could spiral into a regional war if hostilities in the eastern DRC persisted. “If it continues like this, war risks becoming widespread in the region,” he warned.
Analysts pointed to deep-seated ethnic tensions and competition for the DRC’s vast mineral resources as key drivers of the conflict. A January report by the International Crisis Group, a global conflict analysis organisation, warned that the fall of Goma had displaced thousands and pushed the Great Lakes region closer to widespread conflict.
The mineral-rich eastern DRC remains a focal point of conflict, with militias and government forces vying for control over valuable resources such as coltan, tin, tantalum, and gold. Observers said that the demand for these minerals was a key factor in fueling the outbreak of the Second Congo War in 1998.
On Friday, DRC government spokesperson Tina Salama confirmed that President Felix Tshisekedi would not attend this weekend’s AU summit, instead sending Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka to Addis Ababa. Tshisekedi has also been absent from key regional meetings on the crisis, including a summit co-hosted last week by the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Efforts to broker peace have repeatedly stalled. In December, an AU-led peace summit under the Luanda Process, aimed at bringing Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame to the negotiating table, was abruptly canceled.
Angolan President Joao Lourenco, designated facilitator of the Luanda Process, assumed the AU presidency for a one-year term on Saturday. Speaking to reporters, he expressed frustration over the stalled talks but insisted that dialogue remains the only viable path to peace.
“Our continent is going through a difficult period marked by conflicts, between the DRC and Rwanda, but also in Mozambique and Sudan, by terrorism and by unconstitutional regime changes. These are all issues to be managed within the framework of the AU presidency. Therefore, it is time for me to pass the baton to another head of state concerning the mediation between Kinshasa and Kigali,” said Lourenco.
The ongoing conflict between the M23 and the DRC government is deeply rooted in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and long-standing ethnic tensions between the Tutsi and Hutu communities. The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23, while Rwanda alleges that the DRC army has allied with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a rebel group accused of participating in the genocide against the Tutsi.
The humanitarian situation in the eastern DRC has deteriorated drastically in recent weeks. Since January 26, more than 3,000 people have been killed, 2,880 injured, and over 500,000 displaced, adding to the 6.4 million people already internally displaced in the region, according to the UN.
(IANS)
