DRC: in North Kivu, the front fixed about twenty kilometers from Goma
A FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) soldier holds his weapon during a security patrol around Kiwanja airfield, near Rutshuru, 70 kilometers from the eastern city of Goma Democratic Republic of Congo.
AFP - GUERCHOM NDEBO
Text by: Paulina Zidi Follow
2 mins
The peace talks concerning the eastern DRC, which were to be held in Nairobi on November 16, have just been postponed to November 21, 2022. This Sunday, November 13, the facilitator of the East African community, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye arrived in Kinshasa for a two-day visit, while the M23 on the ground is still about twenty kilometers north of Goma.
Fighting between the FARDC and the rebels continued throughout the weekend.
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It is about twenty kilometers from Goma, between Kibumba and Rugari that the front line was fixed this Sunday afternoon, after three days of intense fighting.
They were particularly concentrated in the Mwero area, a wooded area in Virunga Park.
According to several sources, these clashes calmed down in the afternoon, around 3:30 p.m., Goma time.
For the first time since the end of May,
the clashes overflowed the borders of Rutshuru
to reach the territory of Nyiragongo.
A civil society leader who is in the large camp for displaced persons of Kanyaruchinya, at the entrance to Goma, testified that he had heard many shots and detonations over the past two days, but that this Sunday afternoon the situation was more calm.
Saturated sites
A new cycle of violence that has led many civilians to try to reach Goma and
the camps for displaced people located at the entrance to the city
.
A civil society official says that more than 500 people arrive every day while the sites are reaching saturation point and lack everything.
“
There is only water that we have in abundance
, explains Henri Mahabo.
But there is little food and almost no more places
.
»
Civil society which demanded this Saturday the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from conflict zones.
But due to the persistence of clashes, it could not yet be set up.
Kibumba is where the hostilities are and this is where the enemy is blocked.
All the axes where there should be the humanitarian corridor, the enemy continues to shell them.
Henri Mahabo, head of civil society in Rumangabo, a locality occupied by the M23
Paulina Zidi
In the north of Rutshuru, little information is filtering on the second front which is around Mabenga.
The only certainty is that the towns of Rutshuru-centre and Kiwanja are still under the control of the M23 rebels.
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