GOMA, DR Congo: Rwandan-backed armed group M23 announced a humanitarian “ceasefire” from Tuesday in DR Congo’s perennially explosive east, days before a planned crisis meeting between Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Last week, the M23 and Rwandan troops seized Goma – the provincial capital of North Kivu, a mineral-rich region that has been blighted by war for over three decades.
Fighting has stopped in the city of more than a million but clashes have spread to the neighboring province of South Kivu, raising fears of an M23 advance to its capital Bukavu.
A political-military coalition of groups called the Alliance Fleuve Congo (River Congo Alliance), of which M23 is a member, said in a statement late Monday that it would implement “a ceasefire” from the next day “for humanitarian reasons.”
It added that it had “no intention of taking control of Bukavu or other localities,” despite the M23 having said last week that it wanted to “continue the march” to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
In more than three years of fighting, half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been declared, before being systematically broken.
The Kenyan presidency announced on Monday that Tshisekedi and Kagame would attend a joint extraordinary summit of the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Saturday.
Amid fears of a regional conflagration, the 16 member countries of the southern African regional organization had called on Friday for “a joint summit” with the eight countries of the East African Community, of which Rwanda is a member.
According to a local source in Bukavu interviewed by AFP, the city “remains calm for the moment” but information suggests the M23 was “reorganizing itself with troop reinforcements and weapons to go to the front now that fighting has ceased in Goma.”
In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed on Monday to continue providing support to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the face of nationwide calls to withdraw Pretoria’s troops following the deaths of 14 South African soldiers.
Most of those killed were part of an armed force sent to the eastern DRC in 2023 by the SADC bloc.
“A ceasefire is a necessary precondition for peace talks that must include all parties to the conflict whether they are state or non-state actors, Congolese or non-Congolese,” Ramaphosa said.
“Diplomacy is the most sustainable pathway to achieving a lasting peace for the DRC and its people.”
Amid an ongoing war of words between Ramaphosa and Kagame, Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo reacted strongly to the South African leader’s statement.
“You are sending your troops to fight Tshisekedi’s war to kill his own people,” she said to Ramaphosa on X.
Kagame has said that South African troops have no place in eastern DRC and are a “belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC government fight against its own people.”
A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda had up to 4,000 troops in the DRC, seeking to profit from the mining of minerals – and that Kigali has “de facto” control over the M23.
Eastern DRC has deposits of coltan, the metallic ore that is vital in making phones and laptops, as well as gold and other minerals.
Rwanda has never admitted to military involvement in support of the M23 group and alleges that the DRC supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
South Africa dominates the SADC force, which is estimated to number around 1,300 troops, but Malawi and Tanzania also contribute soldiers.
The United States announced Monday it was further reducing its staff at its embassy in Kinshasa.
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Rwandan-backed group declares ceasefire in DRC’s war-torn east
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Rwandan-backed group declares ceasefire in DRC’s war-torn east
- Last week, the M23 and Rwandan troops seized Goma – the provincial capital of North Kivu
- Fighting has stopped in the city but clashes have spread to the neighboring province of South Kivu
’Illegal gold miners’ run residents out of South African settlement
RANDFONTEIN: On crutches and with a bullet lodged in his leg, Miami Chauke is among the few people who did not flee the gun attacks that emptied South Africa’s once-bustling settlement of Sporong, where abandoned tin shacks bake in the sun.
Hundreds of other residents of the area just west of Johannesburg fled two weeks ago, terrorized by violence, extortion and threats they blame on increasingly brazen illegal gold miners.
Taking refuge in a community hall 11 kilometers (seven miles) from their homes, the displaced people of Sporong are among several communities living in fear of the several thousand illegal miners estimated to be operating in South Africa.
“They all had guns and we were running but they kept shooting,” 32-year-old Chauke told AFP of the battle one November night that left a bullet in his left leg.
“I am still in pain. I can’t walk even for 200 meters,” he said.
His plastered leg also prevents him from getting in a car to reach the others, who include his wife and three-year-old daughter.
“We don’t have money but they still shoot at us. They just take even the little that we have,” Chauke said.
Sporong is an informal settlement about 50 kilometers from Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic capital that was built on a gold rush 140 years ago.
The illegal miners — known as “zama zamas” — are after the riches that lie in the ground beneath their humble homes, said Julian Mameng, one of the residents who opted to leave.
“The zamas zamas say our place is rich in gold, we are staying on top of money, and that is why they are killing us, using the gun to scare us away,” the 49-year-old told AFP in the community hall, where families share a cramped space.
In one incident, at least seven people were shot in a bar, he said.
- Terrorizing communities -
The clandestine artisanal miners, many from neighboring countries, have become an entrenched presence in the shantytowns that ring Johannesburg and its satellite settlements along the gold reef.
Driven by poverty and unemployment, the zama zamas — which means “those who try” in the Zulu language — descend deep into still gold-bearing shafts abandoned by mining companies or dig out new ones.
The sector has been linked to organized crime, assassinations, extortion and other illegal activities, leading the government to launch a nationwide crackdown in December 2023.
More than 30,000 people have been arrested and over 4,000 illegal firearms seized, police said last month.
In December, nine people were killed when gunmen opened fire in a tavern in the same municipality as Sporong, an attack that was reportedly linked to a running turf war over abandoned gold mine shafts.
“That place is not good,” said Maria Modikwa, 60;
She escaped with her family of six, including a 10?month?old grandchild, carrying little more than two blankets and clothes to last a few days.
“They shot at us every day, terrorized us, always demanded money, took our phones and bank cards,” she told AFP at the Randfontein hall.
Most of the people sheltering there sleep on the floor, with thin mattresses for the lucky few.
Plastic sheets black out the windows. Food, donated by well?wishers, is cooked on a single gas stove.
Police said on Thursday they would step up operations to flush out illegal miners at Sporong, including deploying two armored trucks.
Local leaders have called for the army to be sent in.
But the promises are little reassurance for Modikwa, who says she will only consider returning if an officer is posted to “protect me day and night.”
Hundreds of other residents of the area just west of Johannesburg fled two weeks ago, terrorized by violence, extortion and threats they blame on increasingly brazen illegal gold miners.
Taking refuge in a community hall 11 kilometers (seven miles) from their homes, the displaced people of Sporong are among several communities living in fear of the several thousand illegal miners estimated to be operating in South Africa.
“They all had guns and we were running but they kept shooting,” 32-year-old Chauke told AFP of the battle one November night that left a bullet in his left leg.
“I am still in pain. I can’t walk even for 200 meters,” he said.
His plastered leg also prevents him from getting in a car to reach the others, who include his wife and three-year-old daughter.
“We don’t have money but they still shoot at us. They just take even the little that we have,” Chauke said.
Sporong is an informal settlement about 50 kilometers from Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic capital that was built on a gold rush 140 years ago.
The illegal miners — known as “zama zamas” — are after the riches that lie in the ground beneath their humble homes, said Julian Mameng, one of the residents who opted to leave.
“The zamas zamas say our place is rich in gold, we are staying on top of money, and that is why they are killing us, using the gun to scare us away,” the 49-year-old told AFP in the community hall, where families share a cramped space.
In one incident, at least seven people were shot in a bar, he said.
- Terrorizing communities -
The clandestine artisanal miners, many from neighboring countries, have become an entrenched presence in the shantytowns that ring Johannesburg and its satellite settlements along the gold reef.
Driven by poverty and unemployment, the zama zamas — which means “those who try” in the Zulu language — descend deep into still gold-bearing shafts abandoned by mining companies or dig out new ones.
The sector has been linked to organized crime, assassinations, extortion and other illegal activities, leading the government to launch a nationwide crackdown in December 2023.
More than 30,000 people have been arrested and over 4,000 illegal firearms seized, police said last month.
In December, nine people were killed when gunmen opened fire in a tavern in the same municipality as Sporong, an attack that was reportedly linked to a running turf war over abandoned gold mine shafts.
“That place is not good,” said Maria Modikwa, 60;
She escaped with her family of six, including a 10?month?old grandchild, carrying little more than two blankets and clothes to last a few days.
“They shot at us every day, terrorized us, always demanded money, took our phones and bank cards,” she told AFP at the Randfontein hall.
Most of the people sheltering there sleep on the floor, with thin mattresses for the lucky few.
Plastic sheets black out the windows. Food, donated by well?wishers, is cooked on a single gas stove.
Police said on Thursday they would step up operations to flush out illegal miners at Sporong, including deploying two armored trucks.
Local leaders have called for the army to be sent in.
But the promises are little reassurance for Modikwa, who says she will only consider returning if an officer is posted to “protect me day and night.”
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