More than 120 Congolese fighters have been disarmed in Rwanda, the Rwandan army said Monday, as a Kigali-backed armed group entered the Goma, a key city in DRC’s perennially restive east.
The east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has endured decades of internal and cross-border violence, with the latest escalation presenting conflicting accounts over how much of the regional capital remained under Congolese control.
Clashes between the M23 armed group and Rwandan soldiers in Goma have killed at least 17 people, according to hospitals in the city, with Kigali saying five civilians have also died in Rwanda.
“More than 120 FARDC and Wazalendo fighters came this morning, we disarmed them just like we have done for many others in the past years,” Rwandan army spokesman Ronald Rwivanga told AFP, referring to the Congolese army and supporting militias.
He said the men were picked up near the Rwandan town of Gisenyi, next to embattled Goma.
The military was “making arrangements of where to take them next,” Rwivanga said.
He did not give any further details.
The latest fighting has intensified a humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 400,000 people since the start of the year, and raised fears of sparking a regional war, the UN has warned.
Kenyan President William Ruto said Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame would attend a crisis summit on Wednesday.
The DRC and Rwanda have had fraught relations for decades, further strained in the wake of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The mostly Tutsi M23, or March 23 Movement, briefly occupied Goma at the end of 2012 and was defeated by DRC forces and the UN in 2013.
Half a dozen ceasefires and truces have already been declared and broken in the region. The last ceasefire was signed at the end of July.
