DRC leader calls for military recruits as Rwandan-backed rebels advance
DRC leader calls for military recruits as Rwandan-backed rebels advance
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President Tshisekedi vows ‘a vigorous and coordinated response’ to the M23 group. Rwandan-backed rebels have pushed south and consolidated gains in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, as international calls for restraint appeared to have little impact on the ground.
Local sources told Agence France-Presse that fighters from the M23 group had seized two districts in South Kivu province as they advanced towards the provincial capital Bukavu. “There was no fighting” in the latest advance, a local civil society leader said.
In a late night address on Wednesday, the Congolese president, Félix Tshisekedi, called on young people to enlist in the army “massively” and vowed “a vigorous and coordinated response” to the rebel advance. On Monday, rebel fighters and Rwandan soldiers swept into Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and a regional hub for displaced people, in the biggest escalation since 2012 of a decades-old conflict.
Congo’s army has its main line of defence in the city of Kavumu. If the rebels advance beyond Kavumu, Bukavu could be threatened. Some of the Congolese troops driven out by M23 in Goma fled to Bukavu. In his first public address since the fall of Goma, Tshisekedi said a “vigorous and coordinated response against these terrorists and their sponsors” was under way. “Enlist massively in the army because you are the spearhead of our country,” he said.
The president criticised what he described as the “silence and inaction” of the international community, calling it an affront in the face of an “unprecedented worsening of the security situation” that could lead straight to an escalation in the broader Great Lakes region.
