(Bloomberg) — Security in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is deteriorating amid numerous conflicts, including clashes between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and Congo’s army, United Nations and UN Security Council members warned Friday.
The violence persists despite a US-backed peace agreement between Rwanda and Congo signed in June and ongoing talks between the M23 and Congo in Qatar, council members said in an emergency meeting called by the US.
“Regrettably, the evolution of the security situation on the ground has not matched the progress achieved on the diplomatic front,” UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee told the council. “The number of civilian casualties has risen dramatically,” and rape and forced recruitment of children into armed groups continue.
Violence has persisted in eastern Congo since the mid-1990s when the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide spread across the border, sparking multiple wars and local conflicts, some of which continue to this day.
The current M23 rebellion is the most recent incarnation of multiple proxy groups supported by Rwanda to address its security concerns and protect its interests in the mineral-rich region, though Rwanda denies backing the rebels.
The M23 sparked international outrage earlier this year when it took control of the key trading hubs of Goma and Bukavu on Congo’s border with Rwanda.
The occupation led the Trump administration to redouble US efforts to stop the conflict.
‘Ongoing Fighting’
Despite the US pressure, M23 is continuing to make incremental gains and, with backing from members of the Rwandan army, killed at least 319 civilians in July in four villages alone, according to the UN human rights office, Pobee said.
The villages were strongholds of a group known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, which has links to the Rwandan Hutu perpetrators of the genocide against the Tutsis. Rwanda and M23 have long complained of Congolese collaboration with FDLR rebels.
Congo has agreed to neutralize the group as part of the US-backed peace deal.
Congo’s ambassador to the UN, Zenon Ngay Mukongo, said the alleged M23 massacres were targeted ethnic killings and asked the council to strengthen sanctions for those responsible.
The ongoing fighting in the east goes against “the spirit and the letter of both the bi-lateral DRC-Rwanda peace agreement and the DRC-M23 declaration of principles,” Dorothy Shea, the US ambassador to the UN, told the council.
“The United States will hold accountable spoilers to peace, and we call on council members to do the same,” she said, adding that the US had intelligence that Rwanda continued to support M23 attacks this month.
Rwanda’s UN ambassador, Martin Ngoga, accused Congo’s army of attacks and reinforcing its positions against the M23, but said his government continues to support the two peace processes.
Ngoga said the meeting took place “amid grave and unfounded allegations against my country,” and he called for an independent investigation into the killings in the Hutu villages.
Violence in other parts of the Congo’s east is also on the rise, council members said.
In Ituri province, security “has deteriorated sharply since July,” with the Codeco and Zaire rebel groups killing multiple civilians, the UN’s Pobee said.
The Islamist Allied Democratic Forces have also killed 185 civilians since the beginning of July and hundreds have been kidnapped over the same period, she said.
Around 5.9 million Congoles are currently displaced due to conflict, making it “one of the most acute humanitarian situations in the world,” Pobee said.
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