DRC: return on Tuesday's clashes near Minembwe between communities
Audio 01:17
DRC, October 2020: between Minembwe and Mikenge, houses burnt down.
Tens of thousands of people in the highlands have been forced to leave their homes for a year and a half.
RFI / Sonia Rolley
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the results are still uncertain after violent clashes on Tuesday, October 20, between the Mai Mai Biloze Bishamboke and the men of Colonel Makanika, north-west of Minembwe.
There would have been between 10 and 20 deaths according to the sources, and several villages were burned.
Publicity
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with our special correspondent in Minembwe,
Sonia Rolley
These are arguably the most serious clashes since those in Kipupu.
The Congolese army accuses Michel Rukunda, said Makanika, a deserter from the Banyamulenge community, of being at the origin of this attack, like others, including against Congolese soldiers.
The c
olonel Makanika
has become their nemesis, like all the Mai Mai groups from rival communities.
►
To read also
: Monusco goes to Kipupu, in South Kivu, after violent attacks
On the clashes on Tuesday, as on the previous ones, Colonel Makanika ensures that he acted only in self-defense.
He accuses the Mai Mai Biloze Bishambuke of having attacked Banyamulenge and their cattle in Rubanda and poses as the sole defender of his community.
“
The Congolese army (the FARDC) is an accomplice of the Mai Mai criminals, to punish the Banyamulenge (his community), to kill and steal their property
…”, he explains.
For the spokesperson of the FARDC in South Kivu, Captain Dieudonné Kasereka, Colonel Makanika should be hunted down and tried.
"
He has turned his arms against the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo ... He is considered a rebel, a deserter and should be treated as such!"
A senior army officer who says he will defend a community, it does not work !!
"
Sources within the army assure that the attack on Tuesday was planned and not provoked.
They refer to preparatory meetings and trips to Twirwaneho, the Banyamulenge self-defense militias today led by Colonel Makanika.
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