The army declared that troops had launched an operation against M23 rebel positions in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday, while locals in the North Kivu region reported fighting on multiple fronts.
The army “launched the offensives early this morning May 22,” according to FARDC spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike on X, formerly Twitter, supported by “wazalendo,” or patriotic militia.
He stated that numerous areas have already been retaken from the rebels, who, according to Rwandan military and Western powers, are sponsored by the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Locals that AFP called in the provincial capital Goma reported that violence was taking place northwest of the provincial capital, on the territory of Masisi and Rutshuru.
A spokesman of the civil society stated that “there has been fighting since this morning” in Bweremana, which is roughly nine miles (approximately 15 kilometers) from Goma.
“There’s been bombing from Minova in the direction of (the hills of) Ndumba and Kabase, where fighting is raging,” stated a resident from the town of Minova, in the neighboring province of South Kivu, which has only recently been impacted by the expanding conflict. The resident asked not to be identified.
After picking up weapons again in 2021, the M23, which is primarily commanded by Tutsis, invaded large areas of the DR Congo and nearly surrounded Goma.
In Masisi area in North Kivu, the rebels took control of the mining town of Rubaya around the end of April.
Coltan is one of the strategic minerals that are mined in the town and is utilized in electronics.
At the end of 2023, the UN projected that approximately seven million people, including 2.5 million in North Kivu alone, had been displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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