Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: ABOUT 200,000 people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Rwanda-backed rebels march on a strategic eastern town just days after Donald Trump hosted the Rwandan and Congolese leaders to proclaim peace.
The UN said at least 74 people had been killed, mostly civilians, and 83 admitted to hospital with wounds from escalating clashes in the area in recent days, according to a report in The Guardian.
Local officials and residents said M23 rebels had been advancing towards the lakeside town of Uvira on the border with Burundi and fighting Congolese troops and local groups known as Wazalendo in villages to the north. Trump hosted the presidents of Rwanda and DRC in Washington on 4 December for a ceremony to sign a pact affirming US and Qatari-brokered commitments to end the war.”
“Today we’re succeeding where so many others have failed,” he said, claiming his administration had ended a 30-year conflict that had led to the deaths of millions.
M23 fighters pushed towards Uvira on December 8 after coming under attack by government forces, said Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo rebel coalition, urging fleeing soldiers not to abandon the town.
The South Kivu provincial government spokesperson Didier Kabi said in a video message earlier that there had been chaos in Uvira after rumours spread that M23 rebels were near, but that calm was later restored. On December 8 the rebels captured Luvungi, a town that had stood as the frontline since February, and fierce fighting was under way near Sange and Kiliba.
