Forces loyal to renegade General Bosco Ntaganda have seized control of the strategic eastern town of Rutshuru in DR Congo (DRC) after government forces retreated from the town as the rebel forces advanced, media reports citing officials said on Sunday.
Two days earlier, the rebel forces had captured the border town of Bunagana, forcing some DRC soldiers stationed there to flee to neighboring Uganda. An Indian soldier with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the DRC was killed during that fighting.
Rutshuru is located along the main road leading to provincial capital Goma. Notably, the renegade soldiers have captured several towns in the region after they deserted the Army earlier this year. They now say that more towns in the region will be seized in the coming weeks unless the DRC government agrees for talks.
DRC's eastern provinces of North and South Kivu have been witnessing intensified fighting in recent weeks between government troops and the M23, which is composed of renegade soldiers who mutinied in April and are led by Bosco Ntaganda.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already issued a warrant for Ntaganda's arrest on charges of recruiting child soldiers to his militia. However, Ntaganda, who is also known as "Terminator," has rejected the ICC charges.
The National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a former Congolese Tutsi rebel group led by Ntaganda, was integrated into the national army in 2009 under a peace deal between the rebel group and the Congolese government. Under the deal, Ntaganda was made a General.
But Ntaganda's forces deserted the Army in late April and seized control of several eastern towns from government security forces. The ongoing fighting between Ntaganda's forces and DRC troops has displaced more than 100,000 people, including many who have fled to neighboring Rwanda and Uganda. The renegade soldiers have rejected a deadline set by the Congolese Army to lay down arms and surrender, and continue to hold their positions.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay had earlier described the M23 group as being led by a "particularly notorious group of human rights violators." She also accused them of carrying out mass rape, massacres as well as recruitment and use of children.
A recent U.N. report had accused the Rwandan government led by President Paul Kagame of supporting Ntaganda's rebel group. But it has since denied those allegations. Incidentally, both Kagame and Ntaganda are ethnic Tutsis.
In addition to the ongoing fighting with the mutineers, the Congolese security forces were also engaged in separate offensives against Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels in the east and the Uganda-based Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north.
U.N. peace-keepers were sent to DR Congo in 1999 as part of international efforts aimed at ending the 1999-2002 civil war and establish peace in the region. The fighting dragged in six other countries and left over four million people dead. Nevertheless, fighting continues sporadically in the east, where the bulk of U.N. forces are deployed. In late June, the U.N. Security Council had extended the mission's mandate for one more year.
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