Rebels advance in Congo

UN’S Ban Ki-moon asks Rwandan leader to help

GOMA, CONGO— A rebel group believed to be backed by Rwanda advanced to within three kilometres of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time that rebels have come this close since 2008.

Congolese army spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said the fighting began at 6 a.m. Sunday and moved to just a few kilometres outside the city.

After more than nine hours of clashes, the two sides took a break just after 3 p.m., with M23 rebels establishing a checkpoint just 100 metres away from one held by the military in a village three kilometres outside the Goma city line.

After the fighting stopped, M23 spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama said, “We can take Goma easily now; we have pushed the Congolese army back over10 kilometres in one day. . . then our next step will be to take Bukavu,” referring to the capital of the next province south.

The M23 rebel group is made up of soldiers from a now-defunct rebel army, the National Congress for the Defence of the People, or CNDP, a group composed primarily of fighters from the Tutsi ethnic group, the ethnicity targeted in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

In 2008, the CNDP, led by Rwandan commando Gen. Laurent Nkunda, marched his soldiers to the doorstep of Goma, abruptly stopping just before taking the city.

In the negotiations that followed, culminating in a March 23, 2009, peace deal, the CNDP agreed to disband. Their fighters joined the national army and did not pick up their arms again until this spring, when hundreds defected, claiming the government had failed to uphold its end of the 2009 deal.

UN and other reports have shown that M23 is actively backed by Rwanda with financial support and arms as well as fighters.

The new rebellion is likely linked to the ongoing fight to control Congo’s rich mineral wealth.

On Saturday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Rwandan President Paul Kagame to ask him to use his influence to calm the situation.