Congolese M23 rebels seize major mining town of Rubaya

KINSHASA, Congo

Congolese M23 rebels Sunday seized the strategic mining town of Rubaya in Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern North Kivu province, residents and a security mapping monitor said Monday.

The capture of Rubaya, a major coltan mining town in Masisi territory, came days after the rebels took control of another key town of Mushaki in North Kivu.

The development casts doubt on the commitment of the rebels to withdraw from their positions, which was supposed to begin on Feb. 28 according to a new schedule outlined by East African leaders.

Rubaya town “fell to rebels on (Sunday) afternoon after two days of intense fighting,” Meschak Malikidogo, the head of a local mining cooperative, told Anadolu.

“Government troops withdrew given the large number of rebels,” he added.

A senior officer of the Congolese army said government troops “made a strategic withdrawal to avoid a bloodbath.”

The officer claimed the rebels had gained reinforcements from fresh troops from Rwanda.

The Kivu Security Tracker which maps violence in eastern Congo said Monday Congolese residents continued to flee toward the provincial capital, Goma.

“M23’s capture of the Rubaya mining site proves economic motives on the side of the aggressors. After the capture of Bunagana, the enemy is getting stronger a little more,” said legislator Juvenal Munubo, calling for urgent efforts to dislodge the “enemy” from the national territory.

Defeated in 2013 by government forces and peacekeepers, the M23 rebel group took up arms again in late 2021.

Since then the rebels have seized several towns in the territories of Rutshuru, Nyiragongo and Masisi in North Kivu, which has been affected by armed violence for three decades.

The Congolese government accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23, but Kigali denies.

Rwanda has instead accused the Congolese army of collusion with Rwandan rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, whose elements are accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda.

At a summit Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Feb. 17, East African leaders adopted a new timetable, seeking “withdrawal of all armed groups” in eastern Congo by March 30.

Last week, leaders of the Community of Central African States at a summit in Kinshasa, Congo condemned the M23 but did not point to Kigali’s responsibility.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi called for sanctions against Rwanda.

*Translated by James Tasamba in Kigali, Rwanda