Nearly 100 police officers from DR Congo fled to neighbouring Uganda over the weekend as fighting between M23 rebels and the military in DR Congo's east intensified, a Ugandan military spokesperson said on Monday, August 5, The EastAfrican reports.
This comes after the second ministerial meeting between Rwanda and DR Congo hosted by Angola's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on July 30, agreed on a ceasefire that was supposed to come into effect from midnight on August 4. The 12-hour meeting on the security and peace situation in eastern DR Congo, which was a follow up to first meeting held in March, was held in Luanda under the mediation of Angolan foreign minister Tete Antonio.
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According to The EastAfrican, the Congolese officers arrived in Uganda through the Ishasha border crossing in Kanungu District in southwestern Uganda, said Maj Kiconco Tabaro, a regional spokesperson for the Uganda People's Defence Forces. The 98 officers arrived with 43 guns and ammunition and were subsequently disarmed.
"They were fleeing fighting by M23 and other militias and the Congo military. There's a lot of violence there and then there's also hunger," Tabaro said.
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The M23 rebellion which resumed fighting in early 2022, after a 10-year hiatus, is a Congolese political-military movement that has existed since mid-2012, fighting to protect civilians who are persecuted by negative armed groups such as FDLR, a UN-sanctioned militia that is spreading genocide ideology targeting Congolese Tutsi communities. In December 2023, the rebels joined a larger political-military alliance, Alliance Fleuve Congo, formed in Nairobi, Kenya, by Corneille Nangaa, the former chairman of the DR Congo electoral commission.
Over the past four days at least 2,500 more Congolese refugees have arrived in Uganda fleeing the raging violence across the border, he said.
"The main push factor is the intensifying violence and insecurity," Tabaro said, adding that pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and young children were among the refugees.
It is reported that efforts by the Congolese military, FARDC, to push back the rebels intensified over the past year with the use of drones and aircraft, although the rebels have still expanded territory under their control. In June, the M23 seized the town of Kanyabayonga, whose location on high ground makes it a coveted gateway to other parts of eastern Congo's North Kivu province.
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DR Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting the rebels, allegations the Rwandan government dismisses. Rwanda accuses the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) of integrating the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The militia was formed in DR Congo, in mid 2000, by the masterminds of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
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In the conflict in North Kivu, the FDLR is part of a Congolese army coalition that also includes Burundian forces, troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), European mercenaries, and a number of Congolese militia grouped into what is know as Wazalendo.
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For years, Rwanda has requested the Congolese government to disarm the genocidal militia and address the root causes of the conflict in its eastern provinces, to no avail.
The FDLR continues to spread genocide ideology, targeting the Congolese Tutsi communities. Decades of conflict have produced hundreds of thousands of refugees in the region, with Rwanda hosting more than 100,000 of them. Many of the refugees, mostly from DR Congo, have lived in Rwanda for three decades.
ALSO READ: UN Genocide prevention chief hears 'harrowing stories' of Congolese refugees in Rwanda
By August last year, Rwanda had received more than 11,500 refugees from eastern DR Congo since 2022, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
