DR Congo accuses Rwanda of killing 1,500 civilians in past month

KINSHASA:

The Democratic Republic of Congo has accused Rwanda of killing more than 1,500 civilians in the Congolese east since early December, when the Kigali-backed M23 militia launched a fresh offensive.

Just days after the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a US-brokered peace deal on December 4, the M23 took the key city of Uvira, causing tens of thousands of people to flee across the border into Burundi.

"The provisional death toll of civilian victims of Rwandan operations, which have seen the combined use of bombs and kamikaze drones... since the beginning of December, stands at more than 1,500," according to a Congolese government statement dated Wednesday.

Condemning a "clear act of aggression by Rwanda", the DRC also accused Kigali of sending "three new Rwandan battalions" into the eastern province of South Kivu, with an eye to advancing towards the "strategic Kalemie axis" in the southeastern mining province of Tanganyika.

If the M23 does march south to Tanganyika, the armed group would gain a foothold in the northeast of the key region formerly known as Katanga province, the DRC's mining heartland and a key source of revenue for the Congolese treasury.

Since taking up arms again in 2021, the M23 has seized swathes of the mineral-rich Congolese east with Rwanda's backing, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

In the wake of launching its latest offensive on December 2 following a six-month lull, the armed group took Uvira on December 10, and with it control of the land border with the DRC's ally Burundi.

After Washington accused Rwanda of violating the peace agreement -- hailed by US President Donald Trump as a "miracle" deal, despite the M23 offensive — the group said on December 17 that it would withdraw from the city of several thousand people.