HARARE, January 28. /TASS/. During grassroots demonstrations in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, people are calling on Russia to help settle the armed conflict in the east of the country, the Actualite portal reported.

The demonstrators see Russia as a kind of counterweight to "the West’s hypocrisy" in global affairs. They barricaded the street near the US embassy in Kinshasa with burning tires demanding that the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels and Rwandan troops leave the DRC and the plundering of the country’s natural resources be stopped.

Social media users are also voicing their displeasure with the situation in the country, calling on Kinshasa to shut down in protest against Rwanda’s aggression and its backing M23 rebels. Rallies of solidarity with the Congolese army and the population of the North Kivu and Ituri provinces suffering from hostilities are being held in various DRC cities.

Fighting between the DRC army and M23 rebels is ongoing in the city of Goma, the capital city of the North Kivu province. The Congolese army, backed by Wazalendo militias, is holding part of the strategic positions in the city. Peacekeepers from the United Nations and Southern African Development Community (SADC) missions are defending the international airport.

The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been smoldering for decades. After the Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, and the defeat in the civil war in 1993, part of the Rwandan government army, mostly the Hutu, retreated to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they came into conflict with the local Tutsi, the Banyamulenge. After the Tutsi came to power in Rwanda, it came in support for the Banyamulenge. Eventually, the Banyamulenge were joined by Congolese separatists and deserters from the Congolese army to form the M23 group in 2012. Rebel groups, composed primarily of the Tutsi, plunged into hostilities in the east of the DRC in January 2021 and by now they have seized several cities and more than 100 villages in the North Kivu province.