Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) has said that the armed group suspected to be M23 rebels who attacked villages in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the weekend originated from Uganda.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, RDF also disputed reports that the armed group originated from Rwanda claiming that neither do Rwanda support or is involved in activities of M23.
“The ex-M23 group did not seek refuge in Rwanda but has been based in Uganda from where this attack originated and to where this armed group retreated. Any report in the media or by officials in the region that M23 originated or retreated to Rwanda is propaganda aimed at undermining good relations between Rwanda and DRC” The statement from RDF reads in part.
On Sunday, gunmen believed to be M23 rebels attacked the military positions of Chanzu and Runyonyi, in North Kivu province and seized at least two villages overnight in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo near the border with Uganda and Rwanda.
However, the fresh fighting in DRC has triggered a wave of refugees crossing into Uganda as hundreds walked across the border and received by Uganda government in Kisoro district.
On Monday, the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Flavia Byekwaso said the military had been deployed along borders to block any possible attacks from outside. She also noted that the borders remain open for refugees from Congo as the security situation is being assesed.
Since its inception in April 2012, the M23 group -formed by ethnic Tutsi former rebels has committed widespread war crimes in noth-eastern DRC where they controlled much of Congo’s Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories, bordering Rwanda. During its active years, the armed group was reported to have received significant support from Rwandan military officials.
The rebellion is also believed to be part of continued fighting in the region after the formal end of the Second Congo War in 2003 in which Uganda and Rwanda participated. It broke out in 2012 and continued into 2013, when a peace agreement was made among eleven African nations, and the M23 troops surrendered in Uganda in 2013.
The renewed conflict and the counter accusations from RDF pits both Uganda and Rwanda against each other yet the two have maintained frosty relations for years now. In the statement, RDF keeps referring to the attackers as “ex-M23” possibly to imply that this is a new group.
The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) on Monday accused the March 23 Movement (M23) of conducting attacks in DRC’s northeastern border region with Uganda, where violence has escalated since the beginning of this year due to presence of numerous armed groups.
“with the intention of carrying out destabilizing actions and elsewhere in the province,” the FARDC Chief of Staff Celestin Mbala Munsense said in a statement, adding that the fighting is still ongoing.
“The FARDC is determined to put an end once and for all to this armed group, which must be neutralized definitively,” he said.
