While clashes continue in the strategic rubber city between the M-23 Rebel Group, supported by the Rwanda Government, and the Army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thousands of helpless and vulnerable people seek refuge in a desperate way on the border … Between both countries, where there are almost a million displaced.
The teams of doctors without borders (MSF) at the Kyeshero hospital (rubber) are receiving injuries from the saturated hospital in Nationho. Natalia Torrentresponsible for MSF operations in Kivu Norte, explains that bombings, shots and looting are causing panic and population displacements looking for safer places.
«There are still redoubts of the Congolesas armed forces and their allies and yesterday there were fighting in different parts of the city. Some acts of pillage have been produced, for example in the warehouses of the World Food Program. There is no clear information of who controls the City «, counts in voice messages sent by MSF. «Telephone communication works, but there is no Internet access. The markets are not working, there is no electricity and the population has been locked up for six days, so the situation is complicated at times, ”describes Torrent.
These days the conflict has been extended to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where serious disturbances have occurred in the embassies of France, Rwanda, Belgium, and the United States. The first has been assaulted and burned by Congolese protesters in protest of the aggravation of the conflict in the east of the country.
Rwanda and its president, Paul Kagamehave been historically supported and financed by countries and communities such as the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. The lack of clarity of France has also been criticized in this conflict, always having a “chameleonic” position and without finishing wanting to end this war.
However, international analysts consider that the recent arrival to the power of Republican Donald Trump could turn the current situation. An Ruandés analyst – who prefers to maintain anonymity – comments that “it has traditionally been the Democratic Party who has looked the other way or explicitly supported the Kagame regime. Now, with Trump, all this critical situation can suffer a transcendental change ».
Rwanda support
Of what there is no doubt-despite denying it Kagame-is that the M-23 is promoted and supported by the Ruandés government since its inception. A recent report by the Group of Experts on the Congo RD states that «the M-23 is nothing more than a tentacle of the Rwanda Defense Forces (FDR) with a command structure in which the Military Chief of the M-23 It would obey direct orders of the Army and the Ruandese intelligence services, ”according to @conoactual.
It is estimated that they currently operate in the east of the Congo and the border between some 3,000 and 4,000 Ruandese soldiers.
“Economically speaking, the best conquest of the M-23- and perhaps one of the great objectives of this war- has been the Rubaya mining area, one of the richest in the world in Coltán, house and with manganese deposits,” he explains Julián Gómez-Cambronero, author of the book “Who cares about the Congo?”
The M-23 survives today thanks to the support of the aforementioned international powers, to the Ruandés army and its wide recruitment capacity-including minors-and training in the Congolese soil itself.
UN experts indicate broad connections and associations of M-23 with other armed groups in different parts of the Congo RD.
Last year, in an attempt to pacification in the rich region of the great lakes, the American ambassador, Lacy Tamlin, visited rubber and assured that “we have stopped military assistance to Rwanda, we will not provide them with weapons or teams.” However, different Congoleñas voices accused her of lying for being militarily attending Rwanda through her partner in NATO, Poland.
China, apart from conflict
China, for the moment, remains outside the conflict, but today is a strategic ally of Congo in the construction of infrastructure, mining farms, etc.
According to trade data from the Economic Observatory, in 2022 – we last data available – Congo’s main exports to China were refined, for 6,720 million dollars; Cobalt, for 5,740 million, and raw copper, for 1,370 million dollars. We must not forget that the African country is today the world cobalt producer, a fundamental component for electric cars batteries. In this way, interest in the Congo is better understood by the great international powers.
There is the circumstance that the Congolese government has expressed interest in diversifying its commercial partners, which threatens the dominance of the Asian country over the resources of the African Republic. Given this new situation, great powers such as India could expand its presence in African territory.
Now we will have to wait to see if the international community acts and achieves a high fire that is the beginning of the end of the conflict, establishing a security zone for the thousands of displaced.
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