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.- ‘Infiltration’ by Tutsi women -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.But both Washington and the DRC have cast doubt on the sincerity of the M23’s announcement, while local sources told AFP on Thursday that plainclothes M23 members and police officers had stayed behind in Uvira.”We are living and working with them,” a resident employed in a security firm told AFP by telephone, speaking on condition of anonymity.At the beginning of the week, the Congolese army said it had retaken several settlements around Uvira following “violent clashes”.The town’s capture came nearly a year after the M23 took the major eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces.According to the United Nations, more than 80,000 people have fled across the border to Burundi following the M23’s latest advance, which has also internally displaced at least half a million within South Kivu alone.US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz has condemned the “scale and sophistication” of Rwanda’s involvement in the eastern DRC, accusing Kigali of deploying up to 7,000 troops there. UN experts likewise say Rwanda is using the M23 to maintain control of the eastern DRC’s abundant natural resources.The M23 denies all links to Rwanda and insists its aim is to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.Rwanda denies offering the M23 military support, but says it faces an existential threat from the presence in the Congolese east of armed groups with links to the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis.At the weekend, General Sylvain Ekenge, a Congolese army spokesman, accused Rwanda on national television of using “Tutsi women” to conduct a “strategy of infiltration”. The general has since been suspended after his comments caused an outcry, the government has said.
