PRETORIA, February 2. /TASS/. Rebels from the March 23 Movement (M23), who are operating in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, demand that the Congolese government engage in a direct dialogue with them, according to rebel spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka.
"We reiterate our call for a sincere and direct dialogue with the Kinshasa regime to address the root causes of the conflict and establish lasting peace in our country," Rwanda’s New Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
According to Kamyuka, the rebels are committed to a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Meanwhile, the government of the DR Congo rejects any direct talks with M23, saying that this is a terrorist group. Rwanda, in turn, refuses to continue working on an agreement on settling relations with the DR Congo unless its authorities engage in dialogue with M23.
Last week, M23 units, backed by the Rwandan army, seized the city of Goma, the capital of the DR Congo’s North Kivu province. Now they are advancing toward Bukavu, the capital city of the neighboring South Kivu province. The rebels are now some 60 kilometers from Bukavu with a population of more than one million.
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.