The panic swept through the second largest inhabitant of the Eastern Congo on Saturday, as the residents of thousands fled and escaped the impending progress of rebels from Rwanda.
In the morning, after the M23 fighter in the Bukavu-one city’s outskirts with around 1.3 million people, which is 200 kilometers south of Rebel-Held-Goma, some streets were flooded by the residents who attempted to go, and Filling flour bags with what you could find. A standstill that was later used on what comes next as a resident and business owner.
Most people waited in their house, shocked when the corpses were burned on the streets – victims of the looters who filled the vacuum that left over Congolese soldiers who used to dake their posts.
“You set fire to the ammunition that you couldn’t take with you,” said Alain Iragi, among the residents who fled on Saturday in search of security.
Reports and social media videos showed that the region’s factories looted and the prisons were emptied while electricity was open in most locations.
“It is a shame. Some citizens have fallen victim to stray balls. Even some soldiers who are still present in the city are involved in plenty in these cases,” said a 25-year-old resident of the Associated Press.
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups, which include M23, accused Congolese troops and their allies from the local militia and the neighboring Burundi for the disturbance in Bukavu.
“We ask the population to keep control of their city and not to panic,” said Lawrence Kanyuka, the spokesman for the Allianz, in a statement on Saturday.
To the south after the confiscation of Goma
M23, a rebel group that is supported by around 4,000 soldiers from neighboring Rwanda, is the most prominent of more than 100 who fight for control over the mineral -rich east of Congo.
Congolese authorities and international observers have accused sexual violence, forced conscription and summarizing executions. The expansion of the M23 to the south comprises more areas than rebels that have previously confiscated an unprecedented challenge for the central government in Kinshasa.
Guide from East and South Africa demanded an immediate ceasefire in the Eastern Congo, where rebels threaten the Congolese government. The M23 rebels supported by Rwanda took over the cities near Congo’s Capital and provided the president of the country intensively with Rwandan officials and other leaders.
In the rebellion, almost 3,000 people were killed in the east of Congo and hundreds of thousands were stranded by displaced people. At least 350,000 internal displaced people are without protection, the United Nations authorities and the Congolese authorities.
The rebels on Friday also claimed to have confiscated a second airport in the region in the city of Kavumu outside of Bukavu.
The AP could not confirm who had control over the strategically important airport, with which the Congolese armed forces used troops and humanitarian groups to import help. The Congo River Alliance announced on Saturday that M23 had taken control of the airport to prevent the Congolese armed forces from starting air strikes against civilians.
Government officials and leaders of local civil society did not immediately comment on, although the Ministry of Communication of the Congo stated that the rebels violated ceasefire agreements and attacked Congolese troops in order to avoid urban warfare and violence in Bukavu.
The reports of looting and disorder come a day after the residents had told the AP that soldiers in Kavumu – the airport city north of Bukavu – had given up their positions to drive towards the city. The event chain reflects what occurred in the run-up to Goma’s M23 edging last month. Despite its size and financing, the military of Congo has long been hindered by defects in training and coordination and recurring reports on corruption.
Conflict conflict could spread out
It is expected that international leaders will discuss the conflict at the summit of the African Union in Ethiopia this weekend, since the Congo President Felix Tshisekedi continues to ask the international community to intervene in order to rebel and the black list “Expansionist” Rwanda for the To contain support of rebels. Tshisekedi was not on the summit.
The African leaders and the international community are hesitant to take decisive measures against M23 or Rwanda.
In Addis remain on Saturday that UN Secretary General António Guterres warned of the conflict that turned into regional moisture breaks.
“The regional escalation must be avoided at all costs,” Guterres told the African Union’s summit. “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of (Congo) must be respected.”
Although Guterres said that the solution to the conflict in Africa does not agree, African leaders do not agree on how to solve the conflict in a way that fulfills the warfare parties.
Regional tensions
Despite the universal demands for an armistice, the rebellion has inflamed historical tensions in the Great Lakes region, which includes Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.
Troops from Burundi and the South African development community are used to support the Congolese armed forces. Ugandian troops are fighting other rebel groups in other regions within the eastern Congo, where attacks on civilians have been reported in the past few months.
In Ituri, hundreds of kilometers north of M23 on March, Ugandian troops hunt members of the Islamist Allied democratic armed forces.
The fights risked a severe escalation on Saturday. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s top military commander, told all the armed forces in the capital of the province that they had 24 hours to arise and warned that it would soon be under the control of the Ugandian army.
“If you don’t do it, we will look at you enemies and attack them,” said Kainerugaba in a position on X without identifying the other forces.
