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Eastern Congo has been in conflict for decades with more than
100 armed groups, most of which are vying for territory in the
vast and mineral-rich region near the border with Rwanda. The
conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian
crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including
100,000 who have fled their homes this year.
The Congolese army said some of the recovered towns have been
occupied by rebels for months, including Ngungu, a key town in
the Masisi territory that is near the North Kivu provincial
capital, Goma. Some Masisi villages, however, remain under the
control of rebels, including its center known as the Masisi
Center.
“They (the rebels) have seen their adventure come to a halt by
the FARDC (Congolese security forces),” Guillaume Ndjike Kaiko,
army spokesman in North Kivu, told reporters, listing other
recovered towns as Lumbishi, Ruzirantaka, Kamatale, Bitagata and
Kabingo.
“All over there, they have been pushed back,” Kaiko said Sunday,
attributing the victories to a joint military operation led by
the commanders of the two provinces.
The news of the recovered towns brought mixed feelings among
villages that had fled the areas. They worried for their safety
as they celebrated their return home.
“We are in Ngungu … but we continue to suffer because the
security is not well established,” said Nsabimana Alexis, a
resident. “People continue to die, we just buried a person 30
minutes ago,” he said.
Frequent clashes between the Congolese forces and the rebels
have made dozens of villages inaccessible and out of the reach
of aid. The most dominant rebel group in the region has been the
M23 rebel group, which the Congolese government and United
Nations experts say is being backed by neighboring Rwanda.
Rwanda denies this.
In Masisi, displaced camps and aid facilities are being
overstretched as more people try to seek refuge from the
violence, French charity Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, has
said.
“We are doing our best to respond to this situation. But the
severe lack of humanitarian responders in the area is making
things difficult,” said Romain Briey, the MSF coordinator in
Masisi.
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