GOMA- The Alliance Fleuve Congo/M23 Communication Focal Point officer Lawrence Kanyuka has asked SAMIDRC and MONUSCO to refrain from intervening in the war imposed on them by the Kinshasa Regime.
According to a one page official communiqué dated January 24th 2025 and signed by Kanyuka, reiterated that any involved, collaboration, direct or indirect support to the ongoing conflict by the UN and SADC will compel them to exercise their full right to legitimate defence.
He made it categorically clear that their forces are advancing to liberate their compatriots in Goma City to restore security and dignity of the Congolese people.
This comes after hostilities in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo involving armed group M23 caused further mass displacement in the mineral-rich region, with fears that the regional capital Goma could come under attack.
UN agencies warned, “We are deeply alarmed at the heightened risk of an attack by the M23 armed group on Goma, the capital of North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and any such attack on Goma risks catastrophic impacts on hundreds of thousands of civilians, putting them at heightened exposure to human rights violations and abuses,” The pokesperson for the UN Human Rights office, Ms Ravina Shamdasani said.
Ms Shamdasani added that armed groups abduct, hold captive and subject women and girls to sexual slavery and many of them have been killed after being raped.
Since the UN peacekeeping Mission, MONUSCO, withdrew from South Kivu in June 2024, peacekeepers have defended key positions in North Kivu, including Goma and Sake, where clashes between the M23, the Congolese Armed Forces and many other armed groups have continued.
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees about 400,000 people have been displaced in North and South Kivu since the beginning of this year alone and this highlighting the humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold largely unseen by the outside world,
UNHCR spokesperson Matt Saltmarsh reported that bombs have fallen on camps for people uprooted by the violence in South and North Kivu which include one on 20th January, when explosions at Kitalaga Site in South Kivu killed two children while on 21st January, five makeshift shelters were destroyed in Nzuolo, near Goma City.
Saltmarsh told journalists in Geneva that heavy bombardments from clashes involving the M23 rebels forced families to flee various displacement sites on the periphery of Goma and try to seek safety within Goma and UNHCR staff remain on the ground in Goma, assisting the displaced civilians wherever they can and wherever they get access, but this access at the moment is extremely challenging.
The development came as the UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed alarm over a renewed offensive by M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and the devastating toll on civilians.
In a statement issued by his Spokesperson, António Guterres noted the Rwandan-backed rebels’ reported seizure of Sake, increases the threat to the regional capital Goma all of which has heightening the threat of a regional war, but Rwanda has vehemently denied any direct involvement with M23 fighters.
The Secretary-General has since called on the M23 to immediately cease its offensive, withdraw from all occupied areas and abide by the 31st July 2024 ceasefire agreement.
