United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called on Rwandan forces to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and halt support for M23 fighters advancing on the key city of Goma in the country’s east.
Guterres “reiterates his strongest condemnation of the M23 armed group’s ongoing offensive and advances towards Goma in North Kivu with the support of the Rwanda Defence Forces,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Sunday.
“He calls on the M23 to immediately cease all hostile actions and withdraw from occupied areas. He further calls on the Rwanda Defence Forces to cease support to the M23 and withdraw from DRC territory,” the statement said.
The DRC and the UN accuse Rwanda of backing the M23 (March 23 Movement) rebels, an accusation that Kigali denies.
At an emergency UN Security Council meeting later on Sunday, the DRC demanded sanctions against Rwanda, saying its forces had crossed into its territory in what amounted to a “declaration of war.”
“More Rwandan troops have crossed the 12th and 13th border posts between Goma (in the DRC) and Gisenyi (in Rwanda), entering our territory in broad daylight in an open and deliberate violation of our national sovereignty,” Congolese Foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said.
“This is a frontal assault, a declaration of war that no longer hides behind diplomatic artifice,” she said, and called for the Security Council to “impose targeted sanctions including asset freezes and travel bans not only against identified members of the chain of command of the Rwandan armed forces, but also against the political decision-makers responsible for this aggression.”
France and the United Kingdom also pressured Rwanda over its role in recent fighting around the city of Goma in eastern DRC.
France’s UN ambassador called for Rwanda to withdraw its troops from DRC territory, while the UK called for an end to attacks on peacekeepers by M23 rebels receiving support from Rwanda.
The meeting was held a day earlier than planned after three UN peacekeepers from Uruguay and South Africa were killed in eastern DRC.
Seven other South African soldiers and three from Malawi serving in a separate Southern African mission were also killed this week, South African and UN authorities said.
Rebels approaching Goma
M23 fighters closed in on Goma on Sunday, forcing thousands of civilians to flee and grounding flights from the local airport as government forces battled to stop the rebels from seizing the city.
The M23 rebel movement has made rapid advances this month in DRC’s mineral-rich but conflict-riven eastern borderlands, raising fears that the fighting could spill over into a regional war.
M23 fighters began moving on Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and home to about one million people, earlier this week and have vowed to seize the city.
Gunfire and artillery fire could be heard on the city’s outskirts from early on Sunday, leading to panic in some areas, residents told the Reuters news agency.
By mid-afternoon, the rebels were approaching Goma’s airport, two government soldiers told the agency.
Officials at the airport said flights were no longer operating. The UN on Sunday told staff in Goma not to go to the airport and to stay sheltered.
The DRC severed all diplomatic ties with Rwanda amid this week’s rebel offensive.
Eastern Congo remains a tinderbox of rebel zones and fighters’ fiefdoms in the wake of two successive regional wars stemming from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Three years into their current conflict, the rebels now control more Congolese territory than ever before.
Well-trained and professionally armed, M23 – the latest in a long line of Tutsi-led rebel movements – says it exists to protect DRC’s ethnic Tutsi population.
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