The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Monday reported renewed clashes between rebels from the March 23 Movement (M23) and the country's armed forces in the eastern city of Goma.
According to the U.N. Organization Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO), fresh fighting broke out between DRC security forces and M23 rebels early on Monday in Kibati and Rusayo, some 12 kilometers from Goma, capital of North Kivu province.
"The Mission reports that initial skirmishes escalated to the use of heavy calibre weapons, mortars and rocket launchers," U.N. spokesperson Eduardo del Buey told reporters in New York.
According to the spokesman, MONUSCO said citing reports that the Congolese national armed forces (FARDC) used attack helicopters in one of their operations against the rebels.
"MONUSCO has expressed its concerns about this incident and the mission is actively pursuing a diplomatic and political solution to contain and end the clashes," said del Buey.
Last November the M23 - made up of former members of the FARDC who mutinied in April 2012 - occupied Goma. Clashes between the government and rebels displaced more than 130,000 people in and around the city and sent another 47,000 fleeing to neighboring South Kivu province. Amid widespread condemnation and calls for their withdrawal, the M23 fighters pulled out after 11 days.
In the wake of those events, the Security Council in March authorized the deployment of an intervention brigade within MONUSCO to carry out targeted offensive operations, with or without the Congolese national army, against armed groups that threaten peace in eastern DRC. A contingent of Tanzanian soldiers arrived Goma earlier this month as part of the brigade.
Nevertheless, tensions have been high in the region after the M23 publicly decried the deployment of the intervention brigade and broke off the so-called Kampala peace talks with the DRC government.
The latest clashes come just weeks after the U.N. Envoy for Africa's Great Lakes Region, Mary Robinson, told the Security Council earlier that there were encouraging signs that the new push for peace in the DRC could succeed. She, however, warned that success was not guaranteed.
Robinson briefed the Security Council after a week-long visit to the region to follow up on the U.N.-brokered Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region.
The Framework, adopted in February with the support of 11 nations and four international organizations (11+4), aims to end the cycles of conflict and crisis in the eastern DRC and to build peace in the long-troubled region.
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