Violent fighting broke out this morning in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following a new attack by M23 rebels. [Movimento 23 de Março]according to the government armed forces.
The attack targeted the town of Bunagana, a former rebel stronghold seized by the army in 2013, in North Kivu province, on the border with Uganda.
The spokesman for the military governor of the province, General Sylvain Ekenge, quoted by the AFP agency, said that the fighting was intense.
According to Damien Sebusanane, the leader of a local civil society association, most of the population fled the city center, an important transit point for goods between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
According to the local military administrator, Colonel Muhindi Lwanzo, troops from the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) were attacked by the M23 in Bunagana and the nearby town of Tshengerero,
Damien Sebusanane said army tanks fired mortar shells at the attackers.
The rebels are mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group, which was defeated in 2013 by Kinshasa, but the M23 took up arms again at the end of 2021, accusing the DR Congo authorities of not respecting the peace agreements signed in Kenya between the two parties in conflict .after the military defeat of the rebellion.
The Kinshasa government accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23, which Kigali repeatedly denies.
Source: Observadora
